* Mark Kleine was a pretty good “get” for the congressional Republicans. He had made a bunch of money with Kleine Equipment, a group of independent John Deere dealerships, so he could start out against incumbent Democratic US Rep. Cheri Bustos with a pile of cash. But Kleine dropped out earlier this month…
In a letter to campaign contributors, Kleine said he became disillusioned with the political process through his experience since announcing his candidacy.
“I took great care in building a campaign team that I could rely on and surrounded myself with those who are considered experts in this field …” Kleine wrote. “Recently I terminated my relationship with my campaign staff.
“My intentions and my sincere desire to serve are based on a lifetime of values, experience and skills needed to do a difficult job. Above that was my willingness to share in the financial responsibility and the commitment to help fund the campaign with my own investment. While I believed in the race and was confident in my chance at winning I realized it would never be enough to satisfy the experts. At what point do we say enough is enough. How many millions of dollars does it really take to run for office?
“There is a profound and detrimental difference between what I believe in and what is today’s business of campaigns. I’ve learned this is an industry that celebrates wasteful spending, encourages inflated campaign budgets and has no regard for operational oversight just ‘to win the race’ but more importantly for others to prosper.”
Emphasis added.
* This is not confined to the national GOP…
James Thompson, who lost a close special election in Kansas and is again running for the Wichita seat in 2018, said the DCCC is specific about why it wants candidates to raise money. “They want you to spend a certain amount of money on consultants, and it’s their list of consultants you have to choose from,” he said.
Again, emphasis added.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:00 pm:
This has been true for a long time. I’ve never had much use for the DSCC or the DCCC. Bunch of self-important blowhards looking to bleed campaigns dry.
Kleine sounds like a smart and decent guy. Hope he stays in politics. We could use more Republicans like him.
- PJ - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:02 pm:
It’s so true. You need money, and you need advisers. But campaigning is a business for a whole class of folks. Their primary interest is always making sure you raise enough money to pay their bills.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:08 pm:
Consultants have to eat and pay bills too…
- LakeEffect - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:12 pm:
well said, Willy.
- Something is not adding up - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:13 pm:
His FEC filing doesn’t really tell you much. It does not include the 4th quarter. In Q3 he did loan his campaign $135k, but also raised a healthy $373k. As far as expenditures, he reported spending less than $300 total. I’m not sure what the NRCC told Mark in Q4, but nothing but good news was reported in Q3….
- Political Animal - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:17 pm:
Most of these consultants are also not very good at what they do. They take credit for campaign wins that have nothing to do with their strategies or advice. They don’t follow data and best practices. They sell themselves on anecdotes.
The IL GOP, especially pre-Rauner but even now, is full of incompetent losers who demand a high price for their defeats.
- Political Animal - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:24 pm:
Most of these consultants also aren’t very good at what they do. They take credit for wins that had nothing to do with them. They sell themselves on anecdotes. They ignore best practices from political science/actual data.
IL GOP was full of incompetent losers before Rauner. It’s only slightly better now. They charge a high price to consistently lose elections. And yet, when they had a super minority in both houses, they were still quite confident that the “experience” made them worth listening to.
- The Captain - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:35 pm:
This is 100% correct. Not to take away from any of it there is also the flip side of the coin that often gets overlooked: candidates want/try to pay staff next to nothing (staff, not consultants). Most of these candidates have been successful in life and want to move to politics, have some personal financial comfort and now they’re engaged in “the most important election of my life”. That’s all well and good but the staff you’re hiring usually isn’t financially secure, is no better than 50/50 to be out of a job after the election and still has to pay rent and buy groceries no matter how important this election is. Good campaign staffers, in my experience, are consistently undervalued and undercompensated*
* does not necessarily apply to campaigns where the candidate puts in > $40 million
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:42 pm:
–Kleine sounds like a smart and decent guy. Hope he stays in politics. We could use more Republicans like him.–
Agreed. Hats off to Kleine for his insightful thoughts. And I’m a big Cheri fan.
- Lakeview Louie - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:47 pm:
Most consultants are out dated blood suckers. Both parties and the politician process in general would be better if most campaign cash was invested in staff instead of consultants.
- Stand Tall - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 2:58 pm:
Mark Kleine is a good guys and has done many good things for his community and I don’t think he has ever short changed anyone working for him. People that work for him can eat and pay their bills, very fair man.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 3:09 pm:
===Most of these consultants are also not very good at what they do===
This. All day.
- walker - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 3:16 pm:
It’s easy to say “no” to such requests.
- Just Observing - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 4:13 pm:
I don’t completely disagree with him, but sometimes you have inexperienced candidates that think a Facebook page and marching in some parades will cut it.
- Chicagonk - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 4:22 pm:
My new political consultancy group will deliver at the voting booth this November. We use big data and advanced analytics to bring you real-time insight into the macro and micro trends shaping voter decisions…
Now I’m starting to think maybe I should become a political consultant.
- Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 4:29 pm:
I’ll defend consultants here. It all revolves around how you want to run your campaign. Do you want an expensive general consultant who might bring a whole package, whether or not it is good, or do you want a team that has strong area expertise such as a media consultant, a pollster, and a media consultant? The latter approach is going to be cheaper, but not everyone plays nice with each other, but it helps in the sense that you can get a range of expertise and experience. In the latter case, you also need a strong campaign manager coordinating things between the team. I’d also add do you need or want a fundraising consultant? Are they a national consultant, in-state, or both?
The point of the preferred vendor lists is to have people the party committees are comfortable working with and can trust, but not everyone is willing to be on the up and up and admit that their friends suck and someone else’s firm is the one that can get the job done.
And the fact of the matter is that as long as you are taking on an incumbent, you need to be doing more. A party/caucus will always work to save its incumbents and as a challenger, every quarter has to be better than the last on fundraising.
A mistake made far too often by first time candidates is picking the consultant/consultant team that gives them the rosiest picture, rather than the ones that will give the straight talk and push the candidate to their limits in terms of time spent campaigning, growing as a speaker, raising money, etc.
- Not a Billionaire - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 7:42 pm:
I am not being snarky but the Russians beat the crap out of the consulting class.
- Blue dog dem - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 8:45 pm:
For decades, I donated money through the old widget factory to the Democratic Party. Through union dues, the USW has donated money to the Democratic Party. The ultimate consultant for the US steel industry. So I thought. Now we got a senile old president doing more in a year than the last 8 years. Didnt give a penny. You talk about wasted money.
- illinois manufacturer - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 9:57 pm:
I hate to break it to you but the trade deficit went up.
- justacitizen - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 10:30 pm:
I see why most of our younger population hate politics. Mr. Klein is the type of person our founding fathers wanted to serve our government. Instead, lifelong politicians(like Bustos) are hard to beat.
- Union Thug Gramma - Wednesday, Jan 24, 18 @ 10:46 pm:
Umm, I remember Cheri Bustos being a candidate for the people, it looks like Mark K. just didn’t have the ability to get funding…shouldn’t whine about the way the system works, since it works cuz of a Republican SCOTUS.