- How much has changed in the building within
the parties themselves,
and not left to right, but the power of leadership?
Because we've seen changes over the last decade
that allow more of the funding to come through the party
and flow down to the members.
And I'm sure when you ran for office for the first time,
you did a lot of that on your own.
You weren't asking for party leaders
to support you on your way up.
- Yeah, that's the biggest difference.
My entire years in the legislature,
we were responsible for our own fundraising.
It was all local.
It was all friends, family.
It was all constituents.
It was pretty much local.
And then you'd have the groups, organizations, who
like-minded individuals who would send you some
conduit dollars and you some PAC dollars.
It has just been totally thrown out the window.
The biggest thing that I've seen, the most
we spent was $39,000,
I think was the highest that I ever spent in my campaign.
And now it's millions of dollars.
The Democrats and their friends spent $3.8 million
against me.
Our side, I think, spent $1.3 million.
Job pay is $57,000 a year.
It is crazy.
And so what's happened is more of the power goes to leadership,
on both sides.
This is both sides of the aisle because they're the ones who
have to raise you the money.
The party has to raise you the money.
The caucus has to raise you the money, because I'm not going
to raise those kind of funds.
And then there's that reliance on leadership.
And I think then what happens is, you know, when it comes
time for legislation, you know, the lobbyists and the
governmental relations people all go to the
leadership and convince them of voting aye or
nay against a bill.
And you know, there's no discussion about it, but I think
there's a little bit of a nod that, hey, this group helped
you, this group didn't help you, because of the immense dollars
that are spent.
And you know, in my particular
race, every state in the union financed my opponent.
And what the heck do they care about this seat?
It's a 53rd Assembly District seat in Neenah
Menasha. So money, money in itself, is one of the biggest
factors that I've seen that has changed this place.
And I don't know if it's Citizens
United, I don't know what the reasoning is, but the
cost of these elections.
And you've got to have it because if you don't,
what's going to happen is the other side is just going to
pour dollars in or their friends are going to pour dollars in
and you're not going to stand a chance.
So you got to compete in the money wars
and that's part of the job that I hate here.