Money has always been a problem in politics. Candidates need it to get elected, but as a rule it’s only those with some self-interest in policy outcomes who are motivated to write large checks.
My experience is that money doesn’t necessarily change policy directly. It’s not so much that special interests give money to politicians who then change their votes. I’ve never seen money literally buy a vote. What’s much more pervasive is that big money backs candidates who already have the positions that they want to see enacted. I have seen money buy an office for a politician who is already predisposed to like what the donors like.
But there’s another problem with money in politics that is much more subtle. The lack of money or the distaste for raising it keep good people out of public office altogether.
Case in point is Michael May, Madison’s longtime city attorney. A highly regarded lawyer, May has thought for some time about taking a career turn and becoming a judge. He’s considered a number of races, but got serious about the open seat on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals created by the retirement of Judge Paul Higgenbotham.
In an email to friends last week May dropped out of the race with a refreshingly candid explanation. First, he found in thinking hard about being a judge that he really loved his current job. The legal questions he gets to wrestle with are every bit as interesting as those that would get tossed his way at the Court of Appeals. Plus May, who is an outgoing guy, gets to mix it up with the mayor, the city council and other folks around city hall and in the community. He likes the combination of serious legal work and being part of the sometimes dysfunctional but always entertaining process that only Madison can produce.
Fair enough. But the second reason May offered is that he frankly doesn’t want to raise the money. He figured it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 to run a successful race. Judicial candidates in Wisconsin can’t ask for money directly, but one way or another they have to come up with it. Sometimes that means writing a personal check, more often it means calling up donors and asking for support while a campaign worker follows up with a money ask.
I can vouch for May’s feeling that it’s awful. It really is. Raising money is a degrading, crummy, depressing, ugly experience. I did it three times in my mayoral races, and I hated every single minute of it. Anybody who says he doesn’t hate it is either lying or should be disqualified for office on account of a dangerous character flaw.
Michael May would have made a great judge. To the extent that he’s staying in his current position because he loves it, well, that’s Madison’s gain. But to the extent that he didn’t make the run because he had too much self-respect to beg for campaign contributions, well, that’s the silent tragedy of our system.
