Turned Off by a Grotesquerie

The list of prospective Republican presidential candidates who have decided against seeking their party’s nomination next year continues to grow, with Jack Kemp now joining former Education Secretary William J. Bennett and former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in choosing not to enter the arena.

Kemp, housing secretary in George Bush’s Administration and a onetime House member, gave several reasons for putting aside his immediate presidential ambitions, but one he particularly emphasized: the time-consuming and inevitably demeaning need to solicit between $15 million and $20 million in order to be taken seriously as a contender.

“There are a lot of grotesqueries in politics, not the least of which is the fund-raising side.” In saying this, Kemp further validates the ugly truth about candidates’ excessive dependency on well-heeled and in most cases favor-seeking contributors.

National campaigns particularly have grown inexorably more costly as they have come to support an entire sub-industry of public relations specialists, speech writers, schedulers and the like. Especially expensive are television ads, which have become the preferred conduit for trying to influence voter opinion. In his State of the Union address, President Clinton called for free TV time for all national candidates. Television is licensed to operate in the public interest. Surely that includes the chance to hear all the major candidates, not just those with the money to smother the electorate in paid ads.

Kemp’s honest and open distaste for the grubby and corrupting money-raising aspect of politics is refreshing. Whether it will make an iota of difference in the effort to achieve campaign finance reform is something else. Our guess is real change will come only when an outraged and disgusted public finally compels sweeping and loophole-free reforms. Is there any chance a stiff broom can be taken to this mess before the New Hampshire primary, now little more than a year away?