More of the Rich Run as Populist Outsiders

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

Call it the Great Recession paradox. Even as voters express outrage at the insider culture of big bailouts and bonuses, their search for political saviors has led them to this: a growing crowd of über-rich candidates, comfortable in boardrooms and country clubs, spending a fortune to remake themselves into populist insurgents.

The number of self-financed candidates has crept up the last few election cycles, and this year seems to be on pace for another uptick.

Through just the second quarter of the year, at least 42 House and Senate candidates — 7 Democrats and 35 Republicans — in 23 states had already donated $500,000 or more of their own money to their campaigns, according to the most recent data available from the Center for Responsive Politics. That list does not even include governors’ races, and the roster promises to grow as the campaign season progresses and spending escalates.

Historically, self-financed candidates have tended to lose. The National Institute on Money in State Politics recently found that of those candidates who received more than half of all campaign contributions from themselves or an immediate family member, only 11 percent won from 2000 to 2009.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/politics/23self.html?_r=1&hp

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Of course, in California, we have billionaire Meg Whitman and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who ran the company into the ground, running for office. Amazing how the corporate media can turn the corporate elite into populists.

[marmar]

1. selfdelete

[mike r]

2. The new pastime for the idle rich: Public Service

Yeah, right

[pattmarty]

3. I've heard that prostitutes are part of that "public service" sector...........

.......Anyway, the "rich" were always at the ready to "prostitute" themselves for their self interest.

[DBoon]

12. I'd vote for a hooker before I'd vote for one of these sharks (nt)

[pattmarty]

14. Oh yeah, and I've known a "few" hookers.

[reformist2]

4. Noblesse Oblige lives....

In a way, this is what's wrong with politics. Because as long as the rich lead the populists, helping the poor will always be argued in terms of charity and not justice.

[catzies]

5. Belated welcome to DU! Yours is a quote worth repeating:

"As long as the rich lead the populists, helping the poor will always be argued in terms of charity and not justice."

YES.

:hi:

[Uncle Joe]

10. I believe you nailed a fundamental truth, reformist.

:thumbsup:

[ProudDad]

6. Just a reminder about Fiorina

First she crashed the cash flow with her bright idea to buy Compaq...

Then she got fired for hiring agents to SPY ON HER BOARD OF DIRECTORS!!!

However, she might fit in very well with the ubber-rich crooks and liars who occupy that millionaire's club - the U.S.Senate...

As for Meg, she couldn't run a pop stand and they probably never let her go near "running" eBay (an execrable operation anyway!)...

[Lance_Boyle]

9. I think the spying scandal was after Carly-Cue had departed.

She may have still been floating down to Earth on her golden parachute, but she had done her damage to HP and fled before her replacement began surveillance ops on the board.

[ProudDad]

15. I sit corrected...

Patricia Dunn, the embattled chairman of the computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, bowed to the inevitable yesterday and quit over the spying scandal that has captivated Silicon Valley and threatened to tear the company's board apart.

Although she had originally intended to stay in the post until the new year and then keep a seat on the board, Ms Dunn was finally pushed out by new revelations that HP hired private detectives to tail board members and to obtain the private phone records of at least 18 directors, employees and journalists.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hp-chairman-quits-in-spy-scandal-as-fiorina-prepares-to-dish-dirt-417216.html

[DBoon]

13. Meg was born on 3rd base and thinks she hit a triple

Someone who thinks that inheriting wealth and connections to the powerful is a personal virtue earned through hard work

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Ugh. Public financing now.

We're not too far off from one of these fuckovers buying his polo pony a seat, just because he can.

[reformist2]

8. +1000

It ought to be the #1 issue until we get it, IMO.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. It should be, yes, but who's going to push for it?

McCain and Feingold again? Or maybe Fiorina and Bloomberg.

Situation seems hopeless.

[roxiejules]

16. They All Play for the Same Team

Somehow the idea of rich people blowing tons of cash so they can win a political seat, so they can advise us on how to live frugally seems just this side of insanely funny. I just wish I felt more like laughing.

[KakistocracyHater]

17. it happens when you don't have a free press

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