Romney: How Much Is That Party in the Window?
by Ryan Sager
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 at 1:02 AM
updated Mon, 12 Mar 2007 at 1:02 AM
Here's one of many problems with campaign-finance regulation (a.k.a. "reform"): While designed to curb the influence of money in politics, it inevitably strengthens the hands of independently wealthy candidates while weakening everyone else's.
For an example of this, look no further than Mitt Romney's use of a private charitable foundation, headed by Mr. Romney and his wife, to spread the wealth among conservative groups he'd like to see jump aboard his campaign bandwagon.
In fact, if a theme has emerged for the Romney campaign so far, it might well be that of attempting to "buy" the appearance of grassroots support — most notably, so far, Mr. Romney's busing in of college students to tip the scales at the Conservative Political Action Conference's straw poll earlier this month.
Regardless, after years of non-political giving, Mr. Romney's Tyler Charitable Foundation is now making donations to conservative-aligned non-profits. Last December, it donated between $10,000 and $15,000 each to Massachusetts Citizens for Life (anti-abortion), Massachusetts Citizens for Limited Taxation (anti-tax), and the Massachusetts Family Institute (pro-family ... you know, to counter all those anti-family groups).
In 2005, it gave $25,000 each to the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
Mr. Romney and associates have also directed cash, about $10,000, to the National Review Institute.
Whether this spread-the-wealth politics will work is an open question. But New Yorkers, especially, might find it awfully familiar. In 2002, Mr. Romney ran the most expensive race for governor ever in Massachusetts, spending $6 million of his own money on a campaign that cost a total of $9.4 million. That gambit bears some resemblance to Mayor Bloomberg's shelling out of more than a hundred million of his own dollars to win two races for mayor in 2001 and 2005. Mr. Bloomberg has also used his private philanthropy to curry favor with the city's non-profits.
It all may strike some as unsavory. But when political donations are heavily regulated, and private wealth isn't, the rich come to have a natural advantage in campaigning. This doesn't mean the political system's for sale. The candidate still needs to be presentable. But it's a pretty big leg up.
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