Democrats are celebrating a gubernatorial win in Virginia’s election, but the losers are the American people. Big money in politics once again broke records and distorted the political process, reducing another election to a game of high-tech, expensive name calling. It is another example of our distorted electoral process and portends worse to come in the 2018 elections.
“Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie started to close a financial gap with Democratic rival Ralph Northam in October, new filings show.
Gillespie raised $9.7 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26, while Northam pulled in nearly $11 million, according to records compiled Tuesday by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP).”
That’s about $20 million in one month, almost twice what was raised in the same period four years ago. Millions more were spent in Virginia’s election by outside groups and in other races. Read the Washington Post article.
It is not as if the money was spent debating the issues that affect the lives of Americans. “If the $29 million in television ads told the whole story, the race for Virginia Governor has come down to a career lobbyist who wants to build new monuments to the Confederacy, running against a spineless doofus who hugs child pornographers and immigrants in the country illegally,” according to this Time magazine article.
But there is a silver lining in Virginia’s election — “19 winning candidates endorsed by national money-in-politics group Every Voice pledged to prioritize working with their colleagues at the state capitol to pass policies to strengthen our democracy and reduce the power of big money.”
Small victories like that all is what it will take to finally overturn Citizens United with 28th amendment to the Constitution. But we need to keep the pressure on. Stampers in the Stamp Stampede decorate dollars with rubber stamps to literally Stamp Money Out of Politics. Get a stamp and spread the word!