by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
I'm a bit late to the party the Mark Schmitt threw, but if campaign finance mavens are looking for rationales to support another bite at the political reform apple, they might want to start with the tremendous time sink that is dialing for dollars. With top House races now costing over $2 million, a candidate who wrangles a $250 donation out of 50% of their campaign calls must spend somewhere north of 2500 hours (at 10 minutes/call) each election cycle on the phone asking for financial support. When you realize that one year of a 40-hour-a-week job is roughly 2000 hours, this means candidates spend an inordinate amount of time simply raising money. On top of that, they have to fly to and from their district every weekend and make numerous public appearances, lest their opponent accuse them of being out of touch with local issues. On top of that, they have to attend floor votes in the House, lest their opponent accuse them of missing to many votes. On top of that, they ought to attend committee hearings & meetings, though these are often poorly attended because Congressmen are often ... you guessed it ... off raising money. Bill Clinton often says that all of Washington is sleep deprived; one can understand why.
This leads to a rather undemocratic situation where its far too easy for office holders to become proxies for unelected staffers and lobbyists. They also might not have time to learn the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims, the Ten Commandments, the lyrics to the national anthem (though Rep. John Hall (D-NY) has that one covered), or, you know, anything. Thus in the interest of having elected representatives who have time to learn more about the issues they're legislating on, it might make sense to eliminate this insane chase for money.
