by David Brown

Created on: April 12, 2009   Last Updated: April 13, 2009

Overall, politics is local and it should be that way. Whether a politician is running for a seat in their state capitol or the United States Capitol, the politician should do everything in his or her power to do what is necessary to raise money within their district. What they can do is ask for assistance from those who have run before and were successful and then retired to aid in the campaign or ask for assistance from the federal level and get someone like a U.S. Senator, Congressman or even the president to come to fund raisers and speaking engagements so that the local candidate can be seen that there is support for himself or herself from higher up.

Too many times, politicians have turned elsewhere for financial assistance in running their campaign. Television advertisements are not cheap and if you are not able to receive enough money from local businesses which are within the confines of your district, then you are going to have to make that tough decision on whether or not you are going to survive long enough to win the campaign for Congress. Former President Clinton turned to an outside source for assistance in his campaign. That outside source was China. In turn, he did pay back the money, yet, this was in violation of campaign financing. This is against the law, yet, because he paid back the money, he was not indicted. What a shame!

This writer remembers working as a campaign manager for a friend who was running for local office. He was a great debater even though he did not think so himself. In other words, with his lack of confidence and the lack in ability to ask for financing from local businesses and others, he failed at winning his election to the office he sought. This writer did what he could to keep his candidate positive to no avail. Basically, the monies came from our own pocket, and still the candidate received a good deal of votes. How interesting.

What is important to remember is this: granted the members of Congress are representing their districts, there is no doubt. Yet, at the same time, when it is at the United States level as opposed to the local level, they are still trying to raise money and as much as they can to continue the upward mobility. This means that they are going to continue to raise money to become a U.S. Senator and maybe even President of the United States if their hearts tell them this is the direction they need to head for. So, basically, what is being said here is that the congressman does represent the people of his or her district. At the same time they are representing the United States as a whole because they do commit to actions that effect the country as a whole as well. This might mean that they should be allowed to go outside the confines of their districts to raise money, but the campaign financing rules make this an impossibility.

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