Both parties insist they recruit the best possible candidates, "and not just someone with a heartbeat and a checkbook," as Jonathan Grella, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, puts it. Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, calls the ability to self-finance "a bonus, but it's certainly not a prerequisite."
Well, they would say that. On the other hand, in October The Wall Street Journal quoted Sen. Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, the DSCC chairman, as saying that he had scouted for self-funders in expensive states. "We knew from the outset it would be critical to have several candidates that do not need a subsidy from the national party," he told The Journal.
Of course, both parties would presumably be eyeing their candidates' pocketbooks. So what would explain the Democrats' recent Learjet advantage?
* It's the economy, stupid. "It's nice," says the DSCC's Gibbs, "to see that a few Democrats benefited from the strong Clinton economy." Gibbs was joshing, but he may have had a point. The high-tech boom created new fortunes 0disproportionately in places where latte is sipped by people who shun neckties and country clubs. Many of the new plutocrats of Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, in contrast with their Industrial Age precursors, lean left or libertarian. Libertarian plutocrats, of course, don't often run for office. Thus, perhaps, the sudden surge of Learjet Democrats.
* It's the trial lawyers, stupid. The 1990s rained money on trial lawyers, who are politically joined at the hip to the Democratic Party. Not surprisingly, their money is finding its way into politics, virtually all on the Democratic side. Two of the six Learjet Democrats in 2000 -- the two who lost, as it happens -- were trial lawyers. Two out of six cannot be the whole story, of course. But plainly, they are a part of the story. Even two Learjets, after all, are a lot: Neither party fielded more than that number until 1998.
* Natural selection. Politics is an ecosystem in which the parties are fiercely competitive and, normally, closely balanced. Once in a while, however, one party discovers an advantage and rushes to exploit it. For a Republican plutocrat such as Steve Forbes, his money, like his real name (Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., ahem), may be something of an embarrassment. Learjet conservatives who want to abolish the estate tax or freeze the minimum wage look like self-servers. Learjet liberals inoculate themselves by being traitors to their class. "You look at these guys, and it's clear they're not advocating things that are in their obvious self-interest," says Gibbs of the Democratic senatorial committee. "It's sort of that refreshing millionaire populist." That would help explain the Learjets' markedly liberal cast.
And so, perhaps, the economy is hatching Learjet liberals at a time when a unique political niche awaits them. Not surprisingly, they are rushing to populate it. If politics is like nature, their numbers will rise until predators -- Republicans -- learn how to pick them off. Or until the environment -- the electorate -- turns inhospitable.
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All Failure|10.24.11 @ 11:02AM|#
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