| Elwyn Tinklenberg, the 2008 DFL nominee for Congress in Minnesota's 6th district, has almost half a million dollars left over from his unsuccessful campaign.
When I first read the figure (which is actually about $483,000) my eyes popped -- what the hell was Tink doing with all the money left over?
Then I remembered Congresswoman Bachmann's eleventh-hour idiotic gaffe about getting the media to "look into" whether members of Congress are "pro-America" or "anti-America" and her subsequent efforts to walk her own comments back by saying they were misinterpreted or some crap. That gaffe caused $1.5 million to flood Tinklenberg's coffers at the last minute, in an effort to do away with the inane idiocy that is Michele Bachmann's role in public life.
Once I remembered that, I settled down a bit, but it's still a bit upsetting. I settled down because it became evident that Tinklenberg literally might not have been able to spend all that money even if he wanted to do so. However, if he or any other candidate in a high-profile race had had that money say, six weeks earlier, I bet their campaign staff would have no problem finding ways to put it to good use that may or may not make up, say, three points?
This is one of the minor downsides to small-dollar fundraising online. It's an opportunity to involve tremendous numbers of people in the political process, but the Netroots are fickle sometimes. It takes a random event like Michele Bachmann opening her reactionary McCarthyite mouth to bring that money in, but if it had been available earlier as seed money, we might not have to deal with her in the next Congress.
All in all, I think the growth of online fundraising is a positive thing for our political process. But there are shining examples like this one that are simply forehead-slapping "d'oh!" moments.
I'll make some calls on this story, see what else I can find out. |
