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Spotlight hits sources of candidates' funding
By Aaron Applegate, The Virginian-Pilot - August 21, 2008
VIRGINIA BEACH
When Mayor Meyera Oberndorf this week called on an opponent to return campaign donations from a health-care company, she pulled an increasingly common political move: Associate your rival with donors you think people won't like and see what happens.
Last month, both candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, challenger Glenn Nye and incumbent Thelma Drake, and their supporters, tried similar tactics.
Locally, at least, the efforts don't seem to be working. Candidates have failed to make opponents give back money or score any meaningful political points, their messages blunted by partisan politics and donor links that don't resonate locally, political observers said.
"It's really a form of negative advertising," said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University. "It's tied to beating down the support of your opponent, not building your own support."
The attacks are seductive partially because they are so easy to carry out.
"Now you can get these financial reports online and Google everybody on it, and it takes minutes," said Brian Kirwin, a Virginia Beach-based political consultant. "It's part of the Internet revolution."
Throw in a string of high-profile donor embarrassments at the level of presidential politics and the near-certainty of getting press coverage, and criticizing donors is hard to pass up.
"The benefits are often low, but occasionally you might get a good hit," said Jesse Richman, a political science professor at Old Dominion University, noting that both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama have returned money this year after questions were raised about donors.
"So now it's something that's on the mind of local political consultants. They've seen it done so there's a temptation to try it."
When Nye and local Democrats called for Drake to cancel her fund raiser with Republican strategist Karl Rove because the former White House adviser had defied a congressional subpoena, the move was seen as a partisan maneuver.
"Some figures are polarizing rather than universally disliked," Richman said of Rove. "You may wind up mobilizing supporters of that person."
Drake fired back that Nye should give back a $4,000 donation from Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who has been criticized for using congressional stationery to drum up contributions for an academic center named after him. "I bet 95 percent of people in Virginia don't know who Charles Rangel is," Kidd said.
Similarly, Mayor Obern dorf called for Will Sessoms, one of her challengers, to return $10,000 in contributions from Amerigroup. The Virginia-beach based health-care company agreed to pay $225 million to resolve allegations it defrauded the state of Illinois' Medicaid program.
One success all the candidates have had is getting their names in the news. For example, The Virginian-Pilot reported all three stories.
"It's a way to buzz up a news story," said Kirwin, who criticized Oberndorf for questioning the donation in a post on the conservative blog Bearing Drift.
"An easy press release," added Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor.
Journalists should cover the back-and-forth of political charges, he said.
"Candidates set the agenda and the people decide. If that's what they charge, that's what should be reported."
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
