When Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) announced earlier this month that he was retiring after eight terms in Congress, he didn’t hold back about why.
“I don’t think I can spend another day in another call room making another call begging for money,” Israel, the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The New York Times. In an op-ed, he estimated that he spent “roughly 4,200 hours in call time, attended more than 1,600 fund-raisers just for my own campaign and raised nearly $20 million” while in office.
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The 57-year-old lawmaker said he plans to spend his retirement pushing for campaign finance reform, working on his second novel and visiting his “beloved New York diners.”
Israel’s confession was yet more confirmation of what many people outside the Beltway already suspect about how lawmakers spend their time. Namely, that despite a $174,000 salary to do a job they were elected to do, members devote considerable time and energy to raising money.
And it’s not just Congress. Experts predict that around $10 billion will be raised during the 2016 presidential election.
Perhaps that’s why Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) is proposing a measure to slow the flow of campaign cash into every nook and cranny of political life.
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The “Stop Act” would ban members of Congress from personally asking people for money. Federal officeholders would still be allowed to attend fundraisers and talk to donors, and voters could still contribute money to any campaign they want, but officials would be prohibited from personally asking for cash.
“We can’t have a part-time Congress in a full-time world,” Jolly, who is running for the Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio, said Tuesday in a statement. “Americans wonder why we haven’t defeated ISIS, secured our border, provided health care for veterans, or reduced the national debt. Here’s why. Too many in Congress are more focused on raising money than solving the problems people elected them to fix."
Here is Jolly’s video promoting the act (and his own re-election):
It’s unlikely that Congress would ever approve a measure that would ask members to unilaterally disarm themselves in the race for money. Jolly himself is trying to lead by example, telling National Journal that he is personally forswearing any fundraising and will leave it up to his campaign staff to bring in the bucks.
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But Jolly’s proposal could help him in a year in which outsider candidates like Donald Trump have ruled public opinion polls and GOP primary voters have displayed anger, in part, with what they see as a quid pro quo system between lawmakers and donors.
Only time will tell if Jolly’s legislation will generate enough momentum to break up the current system of fundraising, or if it will be nothing more than a footnote in the long, sad history campaign finance reform.
