2016's Sorry Batch Of Self-Funders Are All Crooked Conservatives, As Usual

Money always buys access-- the Trones and you-know-who

A week from tomorrow Maryland's wealthiest wine and beer distributor, David Trone of Total Wine and More, is likely to come in 3rd in a primary contest for the seat in the DC suburbs Chris Van Hollen is giving up to challenge Donna Edwards for the open U.S. Senate seat. Recent polls show progressive and labor champion Jamie Raskin ahead with wealthy lobbyist Kathleen Matthews second and Trone and half a dozen other Democrats battling it out for third. During this cycle Trone has given the DNC $231,500 while his wife June was writing checks to the RNC. The Trones have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to both parties and to candidates from both parties, usually establishment conservatives like Hillary, Chris van Hollen, Mitt Romney, and John Delaney, never to progressives.

Last week the papers were filled with stories about how Trone was putting up $9.1 million for his own race, a congressional seat record in the annals of self-funding. His April 6 FEC filing shows a total of $9,973,620 raised, $9,968,000 of which came from his own pockets. The report shows that $9,025,798, which could mean just about anything, although he has been blanketing the Montgomery County airwaves and stuff every mail box in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Potomac and Rockville will glossy mailers as well as in the more exurban parts of the district up in Carroll and Frederick counties. Political consultants are making a killing on this one too, of course.

Like Trump, Trone brags incessently about being a self-funder. An ad he ran in the Washington Post read: "I certainly could have raised enough money to fund a competitive campaign. But the PACs, lobbyists and big dollar donors who give money would expect special attention." And, like Trump, he ought to know since he's made a habit of renting congressmen. He pumped immense sums of money into the corrupt Van Hollen's career and Van Hollen was always at his beck and call.

UPDATE: Trone put another $2.5 million into his campaign over the weekend. So his grand total is close to $11.5 million. Third place!

Other major self-funders this cycle are 4 corrupt conservative Democrats-- Randy Perkins in Florida ($1,000,000), Mary Lawrence in Minnesota ($1,175,400), who's money bough her no traction and who's already dropped out, Vicente Gonzalez in Texas ($1,000,000), and Shawn O'Connor in New Hampshire ($1,000,000), currently pretending to be a Bernie guy. 7 figure self-funding Republicans this time include Mark Freeman in the same Florida district Perkins is running in ($1,207,000), Paul Mitchell in Michigan ($1,140,406) and Martin Babinec in New York ($1,000,000). Last cycle there were 10 self-funders running for House seats:

• Thomas MacArthur (R-NJ)- $5,000,000
• Sean Eldridge (D-NY)- $4,255,000
• Curt Clawson (R-FL)- $4,017,543
• Dave Trott (R-MI)- $3,623,402
• Paul Mitchell (R-MI, same creep/new district)- $3,560,345
• Doug Ose (R-CA)- $3,441,000
• George Demos (R-NY)- $2,500,000
• Nan Hayworth (R-NY)- $1,642,077
• Tom Sanchez (D-TX)- $1,475,000
• Mark Greenberg (R-CT)- $1,441,530

Seven of the ten lost; only MacArthur, Clawson and Trott won, each quickly subsiding into a the realm of the influenceless backbenchers. Two years earlier there were 4 winners among the 10 heaviest House self-funders, 3 contemptible New Dems-- Suzan DelBene (WA- $2,796,879), Scott Peters (CA- $2,757,452) and John Delaney (MD- $2,370,556)-- and one teabagger, Bob Pittenger (NC- $2,310,735). Losers that year included Bill Bloomfield, who ran against Henry Waxman, spent $7,567,080, and lost, Joe Coors (R-CO- $3,535,767) and a couple New York GOP crackpots, Jack Davis and Jane Corwin, each of whom wasted $2.7 million. The big losers in 2012, though were 4 crazy Republican Senate wannabes Linda McMahon (CT- $48,692,316-- this after spending $50,104,984 two years earlier on a failed Senate run!), David Dewhurst (TX- $19,678,457), Tom Smith (PA- $16,272,361) and John Brunner (MO- $7,995,406).



Usually these stories about self-funders end with the warning that most of them lose, sometimes spectacularly like Linda McMahon did, wasting nearly $100,000,000 from her own fortune). But there are 9 members of the House currently serving who self-funded their way in since 2010, 6 right-wing Republicans and 3 shady conservaDems. (Crooked Republican Darrell Issa spent $3.1 million to buy a seat in 2000 and he's still hangin' in there.)

• Scott Rigell (R-VA)- $2,971,364
• Bill Flores (R-TX)- $1,486,227
• Suzan Del Bene (New Dem- CA)- $2,796,879
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)- $2,757,452
• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)- $2,370,556
• Bob Pittenger (R-NC)- $2,310,735
• Thomas MacArthur (R-NJ)- $5,000,000
• Curt Clawson (R-FL)- $4,017,543
• Dave Trott (R-MI)- $3,623,402

In 1998 the Maloof family-- Lebanese bandits, like Issa-- tried buying their no-account son, Phil, a congressional seat in New Mexico. They own the Sacramento Kings, a Vegas casino, some Coors dealerships and a huge stake in Wells Fargo. They spent $9.9 million, which is almost $14 million in 2016 dollars, but lost against Republican Heather Wilson for an open seat. Ten years later Wilson ran for the Senate-- losing in a landslide to progressive Tom Udall-- and the House seat fell to Democrat Martin Heinrich (55-45%), who didn't self-fund at all.

Patrick Murphy owns a hefty chunk of his father's company, Coastal Construction, which has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Patrick's campaigns. So far this cycle, Coastal Construction, has given $300,000 to the SuperPAC set up to back Murphy's Senate bid. Campaign finance experts all agree, that makes Murphy a self-funder in the ranks of other rich people trying to buy political office. When he talks to voters, Murphy claims he wants to get big money out of politics, but behind the scenes, he's pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own bid for the Florida Senate seat. Oh... and by the way-- non-self-funders, who get no help from the DCCC either: