Here's one example of what I think he was talking about. I had a vague memory of it, though I didn't realize it was so long ago (1993). Of course it happened in my state, NJ. Sounds like politics as usual here. :-/
The Rollins Cloud's Silver Lining
By John H. Fund
11/23/1993
The Wall Street Journal
PAGE A16
(Copyright (c) 1993, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.)
It's been two weeks since Ed Rollins , a consultant to New Jersey 's Republican Gov.-elect Christine Whitman, gave America's political community a bad case of indigestion with his off-hand breakfast remarks that he spent $500,000 in "street money" to discourage black ministers and Democratic workers from getting voters to the polls. But amid all the partisan outrage on one side and the denials on the other, some key points have been ignored.
Because voter turnout in the largest New Jersey cities went up, not down, on Election Day, it is highly unlikely that there was a coordinated GOP scheme to suppress voting. If there were any rogue operations, the investigations now under way will probably uncover them.
Interestingly, as "l'affaire" Rollins winds down with a whimper, savvy Democrats are urging their party to drop the subject. "It's time to put this behind us and give Christie Whitman a chance to move the state forward," says Sharpe James, Newark's black Democratic mayor. Other Democrats worry that a serious probe into urban voting practices might permanently damage Democratic city machines.
While Mr. Rollins has certainly added to an already dangerous level of voter cynicism, the spotlight his remarks have shone on seldom-discussed electoral practices could also generate needed support for their reform. Last week, Mr. Rollins testified under oath that his claims to have paid black ministers not to endorse New Jersey Gov. James Florio from the pulpit were part of an elaborate "head game" to psych out his longtime rival James Carville, a strategist for President Clinton and Mr. Florio. New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley says politics "has degenerated to a point that you can get this kind of one-up-manships with political consultants," but he wants a probe to continue.
While it proceeds, the rest of us can ponder some lessons of the Rollins flap:
-- There is a difference between get-out-the-vote efforts and discouraging people from voting. While "street money" programs can become vehicles for paying people to vote, in theory they are similar to a basketball coach encouraging a team to shoot more baskets. But fans would look askance at a coach who tried to induce opposing players not to show up for the game.
Voter suppression isn't unknown in politics, but it's rare. In 1960, Texas Democrats delivered too few voting machines to GOP areas. Some Republicans couldn't wait in line, and left. In 1981, the GOP intimidated voters when they hired off-duty police officers to patrol against fraud at New Jersey polling places.
But the under-the-table deals with Democrats that Ed Rollins described strike seasoned observers as implausible. "The idea you win a race by striking deals with adversaries who can turn you in is ludicrous," says Ron Faucheux, editor of Campaigns & Elections magazine and a former Louisiana Democratic legislator.
-- Mr. Florio lost in New Jersey because, although the turnout in cities went up, he won a smaller percentage of urban votes. The Bergen Record, the main newspaper in New Jersey 's largest county, found that turnout in the state's five largest cities went up 1% over the last gubernatorial election. But voter registration in those cities was down 11% from 1989, so the cities cast fewer votes overall. In Jersey City, registration fell by 9% but turnout in the black Bergen-Lafayette ward was up 4%. Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewsi, a Democrat, reports he had no difficulty hiring 1,500 Election Day workers to ring doorbells, man sound trucks and drive voters to the polls.
What was different was that Mrs. Whitman did well for a Republican in the cities. In 1989, Mr. Florio won 92% in Bergen-Lafayette. This year, he took only 78%. Statewide, exit polls report Mrs. Whitman won 25% of black voters. Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, a Republican who won last May with 40% of the black vote, isn't surprised: "I know African-Americans who liked her support for school choice. They also knew unemployment in this area went from 7% to 15% under Florio."
Essex County Democratic Chairman Thomas Giblin says the Florio campaign didn't aggressively register voters. He notes that turnout in Newark rose to 46% from 43%, but that registration dropped to only 90,000 from 107,000 in 1989. He says that continuing to question Mr. Rollins about voter suppression is like "beating a dead horse."
Indeed, Steve DeMicco, former executive director of New Jersey 's Democratic State Committee, thinks Mrs. Whitman's energetic response to the Rollins crisis may help her build ties to black voters: "This is an opportunity that was created for her and it's one she has seized and turned to her own advantage."
-- Mr. Florio's operatives didn't understand the cities. Mayor James of Newark told the New York Times that the Florio forces used inexperienced "out-of-towners who simply did not connect with the local constituency." Mr. Florio didn't campaign in many cities, signaling that he was taking the black vote for granted. Mrs. Whitman, in contrast, toured public housing projects with Mayor Schundler and former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp.
-- Further public attention on "street money" will lead to calls for its reform, which would mostly hurt Democrats. Charles Cook, a political analyst who once worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says: "Democrats nationally would rather the Ed Rollins discussion go away entirely, as a complete look at the existence and use of street money wouldn't be welcome."
Mr. Cook says a Clinton campaign official boasted to him that in 1992 the Democrats spent $900,000 in street money in New Jersey alone. "He said they needed so many small bills that it took them three days to get it from the banks," Mr. Cook says. "He then told how off-duty police officers delivered the cash." Perhaps his Democratic friend was telling a Rollins . But maybe not.
Mr. Cook estimates that for every $1 the GOP spends in cash to bring out voters, the Democrats spend $6 to $8. "I can't believe how sanctimonious some Democrats are about Rollins 's comments," he says.
Ken Cornell, a New Jersey native who spent many years as a Democratic committeeman in Pennsylvania, says that Democrats who are demanding that every urban rock be turned over in probing the Rollins claims "don't realize that if you regulate street money you take away the lifeblood of the Democratic Party." He says any look at black churches will find that some ministers openly urge their congregations to vote a certain way, a violation of IRS rules. " Rollins would have done something wrong in paying the ministers, but he would have been simply paying them to obey the law by not abusing their nonprofit status," he says.
-- Political reform is needed, but it's erstwhile reformers who are blocking some of the most needed changes. Already New Jersey 's GOP Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian has proposed a bill to outlaw the use of cash for "street money." All payments to individuals would have to be by check. The Bergen Record reports that Democratic legislators are calling his proposal "rash." Mr. Cornell, the former Democratic committeeman, says urban Democrats "are very concerned about reforms like that."
Indeed, earlier this year the U.S. Senate's campaign reform proposal would have barred candidates from raising "soft money" for outside groups that register voters. It was prompted by former Keating Five Sen. Alan Cranston's funneling of Keating money into questionable registration groups. The provision was dropped by House leaders after the Congressional Black Caucus defended the growing use of soft money. Rep. Mike Synar, a liberal Democrat, fought the House leadership's campaign reform bill because it didn't deal honestly with soft money. On Sunday, his effort to defeat the bill failed 220 to 207.
Mr. Faucheux, the editor of Campaigns & Elections magazine, says he welcomes reform of soft money. "Our current campaign law pretends to be reform but isn't. It benefits incumbents and rich candidates, violates free speech and opens up loopholes and inequities that make a mockery of the process." Mr. Faucheux wants to deregulate campaign finance law and instead have full public disclosure "of every penny that goes into a campaign, and every penny that comes out."
It's appropriate that a probe into Mr. Rollins 's comments continue, despite his sworn denials. But the public policy debate would be improved if the inquiry were broadened to also look at street money and absentee ballot manipulation {see related article: "Review & Outlook (Editorial): Philly Outvotes Jersey" -- WSJ Nov. 23, 1993}. It would be ironic if in breaking the code of silence that governs the discussion of America's seamier political practices, Ed Rollins ends up being an inadvertent catalyst for some genuine political reforms. |
