The Mother's Milk of Politics

Anyone paying attention to politics over the years knows just how true that old saying is. Money is the mother's milk of politics. This years gubernatorial primaries in both parties are living proof that this old saw is as true as ever. But it's not just having money that you need to focus on - it's how you get that money.

There are several fundamental ways to make sure that your campaign has all the scratch, dough, cash, mother's milk, call it what you like, that you'll need. First, you can marry it; inherit it; win the NC Edukation Lottery; earn it (a really tough way to fund your campaign) or raise it. Now, the first four ways are the simplest in that the candidate has the money in hand and can figure out how much of it he/she is willing to commit to the race. But you need a pretty substantial chunk of personal wealth to make a difference and even then there is no guarantee that your willingness to part with personal wealth will result in victory.

Now, raising the money is the hard way but even if you work hard and are a good candidate it doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to raise what you need. (I can attest personally to that truism) So how do you successfully raise the needed millions. First, there must be a sense that you are going to win. (See Beverly Perdue) Everybody loves to back a winner and the "professional" givers aren't going to spend limited donation dollars on a lost cause.

Secondly, the candidate can facilitate the outpouring of campaign contributions if that candidate is in an existing position of influence. (See Richard Moore, Walter Dalton, and Pat McCrory) Again, the "professional" givers want to make sure that people in position to impact their wants and needs, are sufficiently supported.

Third, it helps to hold an existing political position so that you can raise money in an existing political committee, then roll that money over into a new political committee for the new office, thus enabling the candidate to "go back to the well" for contributions to the new committee. (See Perdue, Moore, McCrory, Dalton, and Smith)

Does all of this work out for the candidates for governor? You bet it does. Perdue had personal wealth, a perception of winning the governorship, an existing fund raising mechanism as Lt. Governor replete with a donor list built over the years and finally a position of power, particularly since she was backed by the state's most powerful individual Senator Marc Basnight. Moore also had personal wealth, a position of power (check out the NYC trips), a perception of winning, and an existing campaign committee as Treasurer.

McCrory had the position of power (Mayor of Charlotte, although I still question how powerful it really is), a perception of winning (at least the primary), and an existing political committee that had just spent large sums getting him reelected as Mayor and thus a large existing contributor list to hit again in the race for governor.

Smith had the personal wealth and an existing contributor base from his State Senate position but not near as large I suspect as Perdue, Moore and McCrory. While he raised a decent amount of money, he undoubtedly spent an equal or even larger sum, raising it (not a formula for success).

Graham had the personal wealth and a tentative contributor list from his gas tax campaign but it never translated into contributions to his gubernatorial campaign. And I had no personal wealth, a lot of nice friends who contributed, but no existing political committee or contributor base and no position of influence to leverage contributions. Plus, from the beginning the word on the street was - no personal wealth and unable to raise the necessary funds.

So, the pundits can rest easy in that their insights that money would drive the race for governor turned out to be correct. In his bestselling book "Moneyball" Michael Lewis describes how Billy Beane and the Oakland A's baseball team has been able to compete as a low budget team against the well-financed giants of baseball like the New York Yankees. It might work in baseball, but nobody's come up with a comparable plan for big time politics.