Some members of Congress have in excess of $3m in their electoral war chests
The most powerful guy in Washington that you’ve never heard of is Jim “I fix things” Messina, the White House deputy chief of staff. When the nomination of Tim Geithner as treasury secretary ran into trouble, he fixed it. On the first hint that senate Democrats were rebelling against a second term for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Jim went round the senate playing whack-a-mole until it was fixed. Given that his boss is the notoriously tough Rahm Emanuel, he is the Rottweiler’s Rottweiler. Messina (no relation to the Buffalo Springfield bass player of the same name) first drew notice as an aide to Senator Max Baucus, crafting the strategy that defeated George W Bush’s brief bid to privatise social security. Messina’s most celebrated remark, “I didn’t get this job because I’m cute,” has become a catchphrase in the White House. And now he has been given the big job: setting up the machinery for Obama’s re-election campaign. The first decision taken was that it would be based out of Chicago, well away from the Washington intrigues that have set Obama’s inner circles at odds. The second was that they should bring back David Plouffe, campaign manager in 2008, although he has his hands full at the Democratic national committee, trying to avert the catastrophic loss of both houses of congress in November. The word is that former communications director Anita Dunn will be going back to Chicago, which might stop Republicans sniping about “Madame Mao” in the White House. Last autumn, right-wing television host Glenn Beck ran a clip of Dunn speaking in a church and calling Mao “one of my favourite philosophers.” In fact, she said that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her favourite philosophers, because of their insistence that: “You’re going to say why not; you’re going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.” The animal house war Nevada polls show that Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, is trailing each of his likely Republican rivals by 12 percentage points. Reid’s re-election battle looks so tough that he’s been encouraging third parties like the Tea party fanatics to get into the race to cut the Republican vote. So if he loses, who will lead the party in the senate? The favourites are burly, straightforward Dick Durbin of Illinois and the smooth, media-hungry Chuck Schumer of New York. Both have been in politics since leaving law school. Durbin is very close to the president and the labour unions, and is the most passionate anti-smoking militant in Congress (his father died of lung cancer when Durbin was 14). He sticks to his convictions, even when his priest refused to give him holy communion due to his support of abortion rights. Schumer, who has a money pipeline through serving on both House and senate banking committees, called on fellow Dems to oppose Dubya’s nominations for judges on “purely ideological grounds,” but he gets along with moderate Republicans. New York mayor Mike Bloomberg endorsed Schumer’s 2004 senate candidacy and Schumer’s wife was Bloomberg’s transport commissioner. The contest will be settled by which man wins over the 17 Democratic senators elected over the last four years. As head of the senate campaign committee, Schumer raised record sums which helped most of them win their seats. Yet Durbin’s “take no prisoners” style of fighting the Republicans appeals to new members, many of whom are openly critical of the Senate’s courtly traditions. Their incipient rivalry is being called the Animal House war, after the nickname of the Capitol Hill townhouse that, along with two others, Durbin and Schumer have shared for years.
The most powerful guy in Washington that you’ve never heard of is Jim “I fix things” Messina, the White House deputy chief of staff. When the nomination of Tim Geithner as treasury secretary ran into trouble, he fixed it. On the first hint that senate Democrats were rebelling against a second term for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Jim went round the senate playing whack-a-mole until it was fixed. Given that his boss is the notoriously tough Rahm Emanuel, he is the Rottweiler’s Rottweiler. Messina (no relation to the Buffalo Springfield bass player of the same name) first drew notice as an aide to Senator Max Baucus, crafting the strategy that defeated George W Bush’s brief bid to privatise social security. Messina’s most celebrated remark, “I didn’t get this job because I’m cute,” has become a catchphrase in the White House. And now he has been given the big job: setting up the machinery for Obama’s re-election campaign. The first decision taken was that it would be based out of Chicago, well away from the Washington intrigues that have set Obama’s inner circles at odds. The second was that they should bring back David Plouffe, campaign manager in 2008, although he has his hands full at the Democratic national committee, trying to avert the catastrophic loss of both houses of congress in November. The word is that former communications director Anita Dunn will be going back to Chicago, which might stop Republicans sniping about “Madame Mao” in the White House. Last autumn, right-wing television host Glenn Beck ran a clip of Dunn speaking in a church and calling Mao “one of my favourite philosophers.” In fact, she said that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her favourite philosophers, because of their insistence that: “You’re going to say why not; you’re going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.” The animal house war Nevada polls show that Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, is trailing each of his likely Republican rivals by 12 percentage points. Reid’s re-election battle looks so tough that he’s been encouraging third parties like the Tea party fanatics to get into the race to cut the Republican vote. So if he loses, who will lead the party in the senate? The favourites are burly, straightforward Dick Durbin of Illinois and the smooth, media-hungry Chuck Schumer of New York. Both have been in politics since leaving law school. Durbin is very close to the president and the labour unions, and is the most passionate anti-smoking militant in Congress (his father died of lung cancer when Durbin was 14). He sticks to his convictions, even when his priest refused to give him holy communion due to his support of abortion rights. Schumer, who has a money pipeline through serving on both House and senate banking committees, called on fellow Dems to oppose Dubya’s nominations for judges on “purely ideological grounds,” but he gets along with moderate Republicans. New York mayor Mike Bloomberg endorsed Schumer’s 2004 senate candidacy and Schumer’s wife was Bloomberg’s transport commissioner. The contest will be settled by which man wins over the 17 Democratic senators elected over the last four years. As head of the senate campaign committee, Schumer raised record sums which helped most of them win their seats. Yet Durbin’s “take no prisoners” style of fighting the Republicans appeals to new members, many of whom are openly critical of the Senate’s courtly traditions. Their incipient rivalry is being called the Animal House war, after the nickname of the Capitol Hill townhouse that, along with two others, Durbin and Schumer have shared for years.
The $3m club
There are four members of the $3m club, reserved for congressmen with that amount of money in their campaign war chests. All are Democrats, led by New Jersey’s Frank Pallone, who is saving his $3.9m for a senate bid. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who usually wins with over 70 per cent of the vote, hardly needs the $3.1m he has raised from his plum committee seats on telecoms and energy. Luckily, he’s generous to less well-heeled Democrats. Lloyd Doggett of Texas needs his $3.1m to hold his wobbly Democratic seat in Texas, where he leads the congressional delegation. Chris van Hollen of Maryland needs his $3m because he runs the congressional campaign committee which doles out support to colleagues. The fattest Republican war chest belongs to Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who scooped in close to $3m in small donations after yelling “you lie” at Obama during a session of congress. In a close race where his opponent is almost as well funded, he is the one who really needs it. Weenie of the week John McCain is desperately seeking endorsements to fend off a Tea party challenge for his re-election campaign in Arizona. The former presidential candidate has rounded up support from running mate Sarah Palin, former rivals Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, and the new Republican stars, Massachusetts senator Scott Brown and Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. Against that firepower, the very conservative JD Hayworth has only the endorsement of controversial Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, best known for bringing back the chain gang. But Hayworth has made a stir with Photoshopped ads which show McCain in blue facepaint, after the pacifist, willowy aliens in the film Avatar, with the caption: “John McCain: Nominee for Best Conservative Actor.” McCain’s campaign made the mistake of demanding they be withdrawn, giving them publicity across Arizona. And Hayworth, a former radio talkshow host, has long had McCain in his sights, regularly awarding him the “weenie of the week” award on air.
