News stories in the the New York Times continue to reflect its own insularity, or filtered perspective. Today, for example, in “Texas Democrats Pin Hopes on a Big Spender,” reporter Jim Yardley writes:
The dynamics of the raceseem [sic] turned upside down. It is the Democrat, Mr. Sanchez, who is running a big-spending campaign as an outsider and a businessman, criticizing Mr. Perry as a “career politician” beholden to lobbyists and industry. It is the Republican, Mr. Perry, who boasts of long experience as an elected official.
The operative word here is “seem,” for in fact it is much more common these days for Democrats than Republicans to turn to self-financing fat cats to buy their way into office. Can Walker spell C-O-R-Z-I-N-E? Or (Gov. Mark) W-A-R-N-E-R (D, Va.)? Or C-A-N-T-W-E-L-L (D, Wa). Mark Dayton (D, MN) rode the literal coattails of a department store fortune into the Senate. Perhaps Walker is too young, and the NYT memory too selective, to recall that Howard Metzenbaum (D, Ohio) and, yes, Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) both relied on fortunes amassed in business to finance their leap into the Senate from private life.
The only thing “upside down” about the Democratic Party relying on rich fat cats financing their first forays into politics is the world view of the New York Times.
John,
You forgot about that other scion of low-rent department stores, Herb Kohl. How about that greatest exemplar of the leech-class, John Edwards? Jay Rockefeller and Ted Kennedy also leap to mind. I can’t stand any of the lot, but at least Corzine, Cantwell, Metzenbaum and Lautenberg made the money themselves. Edwards doesn’t count, he is a pure parasite. Love the blog, cheers,
-jack
Jack, You’re right. I forgot Kohl. He should be there. I actually thought of Jay Rockefeller but decided to give him a bye because he worked in W.Va. as a Vista volunteer or something; he didn’t just buy the seat. And I don’t know that money is Ted Kennedy’s most salient quality that got him elected (altho it doesn’t hurt). Finally, thanks for nice words…
Jim Yardley, I suspect, simply doesn’t understand this part of the world. He did a piece last month that purported to gauge the mood of the Oklahoma Street, but it was laughable; Greg Hlatky of A Dog’s Life destroyed it in a few lines. And he’s from Ohio, fercryingoutloud.
I recall reading somewhere that in Gore-Bush Mr. Gore’s contributions were largely a few hundred at over $100k per while Bush contributions were thousands at under $1k…