Money can't buy love

By Derick Waller

As Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Terry McAuliffe helped raise unprecedented amounts of money. Now, as a candidate for the governor of Virginia, he looks to duplicate that success. So far he has shown early signs of it.
After he announced his candidacy in November, he raised nearly $1 million by the end of 2008, according to The Virginia Public Access Project. In comparison, Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds raised about a $750,000 and $600,000 respectively in the last six months of the year. McAuliffe raised his $950,000 in only the November and December, and new reports show that the McAuliffe campaign has widened that fundraising gap. He raised $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2009, trouncing his democratic primary opponents. Moran and Deeds both raised around $800,000. Presumptive Republican nominee Bob McDonnell raised over $2 million.
The McAuliffe campaign benefits from Virginia’s loose campaign finance laws, which unlike federal laws do not limit campaign contributions in any way. Political supporters can give as much money as they would like and his high profile friends have been doing just that.
For example, long-time friend Bill Clinton donated $10,000 and publicly endorsed McAuliffe at a rally in Richmond this week.
Anyone can look at exactly who has been donating to his campaign or any other Virginia campaign via The Virginia Public Access Project, which was created in 1997 in response to the relative lack of campaign finance laws in the commonwealth. VPAP is a searchable online database that allows anyone to look up how much state office holders and candidates are fundraising, how they are spending that money and how they are getting it.
Political analyst Bob Holsworth, President of Virginia Tomorrow, said that fundraising is important but warns that McAuliffe is not the only democrat who can raise money.
“Anyone who gets the democratic nomination is going to be well-funded, because Barack Obama is not going to want to lose Virginia. Tim Kaine is not going to want to lose Virginia. They’re going to tap all their national fundraising circles,” he said.
One of McAuliffe’s challengers in the primary race, Brian Moran, criticized him for attending a fundraiser held by Ed Rogers, a republican friend of McAuliffe’s. Rogers supported John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.
The McAuliffe campaign brushed off the criticism, saying that the democratic nominee would need a hefty amount of money to compete against republican Bob McDonnell this fall.
He has reason to believe that money is the key to winning the election. According to The Center for Responsive Politics, of 438 Congressional races last fall, only 30 of the candidates who outspent their opponent lost. That means that 93 percent of those who spent more money in their races went on to win in 2008. More money often does equate to more votes, but not always.
David Cary, President of VCU Students for Terry McAuliffe, does not believe they are totally relying on a cash advantage to win.
“Money will be very helpful but the most important thing is keeping the grassroots campaign strong and appealing to the majority of Virginians. Jim Webb…was outspent in his campaign in 2006,” he said.
New polling indicates that McAuliffe or any democrat has not won over Virginia voters just yet. A Rasmussen poll showed that if the election were held now, McDonnell would likely beat any democrat by several points.
Holsworth said that republicans have a slight advantage because of uncertainty over the economy and because the “albatross” of George Bush is gone. Add that to McAuliffe’s lack of experience and McDonnell has the advantage, he said.
“He’s a strong candidate but I think McDonnell’s a very strong candidate,” Holsworth said. “Can you be governor of a state without having spent a lot of time working in that state, in the political arena? What would the public think about that? It’s an open question.”
McAuliffe called his inactivity in state politics “an asset.”
“I’ve had many life experiences,” McAuliffe said. “You can’t live in Virginia for nearly 20 years and not understand the problems, because you live with that every single day.”
Even though he is a longtime resident, he has still been inactive in state politics and Holsworth warns that money will not fix everything.
“It’s never easy to come into a state where you haven’t been actively involved and have people just fall in line behind you,” he said. “Money itself can’t buy you love that way.”