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Common man campaign?
By Bill Schneider
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It seems like you have to be rich to run for Congress these days. Can anything be done to make it easier for ordinary working people to run? The answer is yes, and it was the political Play of the Week. You have to be willing to give up a lot to run for Congress these days. Most ordinary working people can't afford to give up their jobs. That gives incumbents two advantages, as Larry Noble, a former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, sees it. "The incumbent has the ability to raise a lot of campaign funds and doesn't have to use any of them to pay themselves a salary because they're getting paid their salary." This week, the Federal Election Commission voted to allow candidates for federal office to pay themselves salaries out of their campaign funds. Wait a minute. Bob Novak of CNN's "Crossfire" pointed out, "What an opportunity for a sharp operator. Get a nomination for the minority party in the congressional district, raise $150,000 -- not much today -- and pocket it all without even campaigning." Well, you do have to raise the money. Noble explains, "Presumably it will require a certain amount of public support for you to pay yourself." And the FEC did impose certain restrictions. You can't pay yourself any more money than you made the year before or any more money than you would earn as a member of Congress -- whichever is less. For years, the FEC was deadlocked on this issue. Noble says, "The traditional split has been the Democrats were opposed to allowing members and candidates to pay their salaries out of campaign funds, and the Republicans were in favor of it." Why? Because until 1995, most incumbent House members were Democrats. And they didn't want to make it easier for challengers to run. Now Democrats are the minority. It was two Democrats on the FEC who broke the logjam. What will it mean? Not clear yet. Noble says, "It will take a while to see how this actually shakes out, whether or not we have a lot of candidates who are fringe candidates who are running just to collect salaries, or whether it really does bring a whole new class of people into the political process." Any move that could bring a whole new class of people into politics sounds pretty good. In fact, it sounds like the political Play of the Week. The big winner may be organized labor, which has a program to increase the number of union members running for political office. Now they can run, with labor support, and not lose their incomes.
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