Fascinating information by VPAP:
“In the 1996-97 election cycle, candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates raised more than $9 million. In the 2022-23 cycle, they raised nearly $90 million. See how the sources of these funds have changed in the past 27 years by looking at the industry of donors. Funding from all industries has grown over time, but “political” funding, mainly donations from political parties and from one candidate to another, remains the largest source.”
A few takeaways that jumped out at me include:
- First, to put all this money in context, note that there are essentially zero campaign finance limits in Virginia. As VA Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell explained a few months ago, speaking to American Promise (“a national, non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization that advocates for a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the U.S. Congress and states to set reasonable limits on campaign spending in U.S. Elections”), “a lot of people sort of see Virginia as the Wild West” when it comes to money in politics, and “the best way to fix this is what you all are advocating for is this constitutional amendment.” Of course, given that we are HIGHLY unlikely to get a constitutional amendment on this in the foreseeable future, the question is what if anything can we do about the flood of money in politics NOW? Or is there literally nothing we can do to make things more democratic, to prevent an Elon Musk from spending 100s of millions of $$$ to essentially buy the presidency, etc?
- Also, as you look at the VPAP numbers, keep in mind that the Supreme Court’s horrendous, disastrous “Citizens United” decision came in January 2010. As President Barack Obama said at the time, the decision “gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington—while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates.”
- With all that in mind, the VPAP numbers are striking, including the 10-fold increase from 1996/97 to 2022/23 in money raised by Virginia House of Delegates candidates – from $9 million in 1996/97 to $90 million (!) in 2023/23. Even adusting for inflation, that’s a huge increase…
- As for the sources of that money, in 1996/97, about 23% of the $9 million total raised came from “political” sources, 13% from real estate/construction, 10% from “law,” 10% from health care, 7% from energy/natural resources, etc. In contrast, in 2022/23, 37% out of the $90 million total raised came from “political” sources, with 11% coming from “single-issue sources” (that was just 1% in 1996/97), 7% from energy/natural resources, etc.
- So who were those “political” and “single-issue” sources? In 2022/23, according to VPAP, by far the largest “political” sources (accounting for the vast majority of this category) were Democratic and Republican state/local and leadership/candidate committees. As for “single-issue” sources, out of $9.8 million total, $6.2 million came from environmental sources, including $5 million from Clean Virginia, with $1.6 million from “miscellaneous single issue” sources and $1.2 million from pro-choice groups. Another big category was Energy/Natural Resources, which accounted for $6.3 million in contributions, of which a whopping $4.7 million came from (supposedly) state-regulated monopoly utility Dominion Energy. “Wild West,” indeed!
So what jumps out at you? Do you think the way our campaign finance system is working well or needs major changes, and if so, how do you think that can be accomplished in lieu of a constitutional amendment, as Sen. Surovell suggests, to overturn “Citizens United,” etc?
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