Letters from an American - October 18, 2024

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

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October 18th, 2024. The events of January 6th, 2021 overshadowed those of January 5th, 2021. But that day was crucially important in a different way. Georgia voters elected two Democrats, Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, to the U.S. Senate. Warnock and Ossoff brought the total of Democrats in the Senate to 48, and since two independents, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, caucused with the Democrats, and because in an evenly split Senate the majority goes to the party in the White House, in an evenly split Senate, the majority goes to the party in the White House, their election gave Democrats control of the Senate. Without that majority, the Biden-Harris agenda that built the U.S. economy into what the economist this week called the envy of the world would never have passed.

There would have been no American Rescue Plan, no Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, no Chips and Science Act, no Safer Communities Act, no PACT Act, no Inflation Reduction Act. In an era when Republicans refuse to vote for any Democratic measures, no matter how popular they are, control of the Senate is vital. The Senate majority leader decides what measures can come to the floor for consideration, so a leader can shut out anything his party doesn't like. The Senate also controls the confirmation of federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court. During the Trump years, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, stacked the courts with MAGA judges, some of whom are now so reliably handing down right-wing decisions that plaintiffs routinely shop for them to get the

decisions they want. And with Trump's three handpicked extremists at the Supreme Court, challenging those decisions simply writes that extremism more fully into law. As Trump continues to crumble, he canceled another appearance today. And in a statement almost certainly designed to leak, an advisor said he was exhausted. And as Democrats are favored to take the House, Republicans are waging a fierce battle to take control of the Senate. They are starting with an advantage. There are 34 Senate seats on the ballot this year and Democrats are defending 23 of them, while Republicans are defending just 11. Republicans need to pick up one seat to control the Senate if Trump wins the White House and two if Harris wins.

The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund PAC has, so far, spent more than $140 million in this year's Senate races, with more than $136 million going to attack ads. the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $17.85 million in Montana, $55.5 million in Ohio, $38.1 million in Pennsylvania, and $23.6 million in Wisconsin. In each of these four races, that money is bolstering extremely wealthy Republican challengers. In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy, running against Senator John Tester, would be among the 10 wealthiest senators if elected. His financial disclosures put his net worth at between $74 million and $260 million. Republican Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has a net worth between $38 million and $172.7 million. In the Pennsylvania race, David McCormick, who actually appears to live in Connecticut, reported assets of $116 million to $290 million

in 2022. In Wisconsin's race, Republican Eric Hovde, who lived in an Ocean View mansion in Laguna Beach, California until he decided to run for the Senate from Wisconsin, would also be one of the Senate's richest members. His financial disclosures say his net worth is between $195.5 million and $564.4 million. This is not a coincidence. Knowing that fundraising would be difficult this year with Trump steering funds from the Republican National Committee primarily to himself, Republican Party leaders actively recruited candidates who could pour their own money into their campaigns. By the end of June, Sheehy had put $10.7 million into his own race. Marino had put in $4.5 million by mid-October. McCormick had loaned his campaign more than

$4 million by the end of June. Hovde put in $8 million by the end of March. This moment echoes the late 19th century, when wealthy businessmen sought a Senate seat as a capstone to their success, a perch from which they could protect the interests of other men like themselves. In that era, it was relatively easy for a man like Nevada's William Sharon to buy himself a Senate seat, because the Constitution had established that state legislatures would elect their state senators. had established that state legislatures would elect their state senators. Determined to win a Senate seat to protect his railroad interests, regardless of expense, Sharon bought a newspaper to flood the state capitol with his own praise. The legislature gave him the seat in 1874. By the 1880s, even the staunchly pro-business Chicago Tribune complained, behind every one of half of the portly and well-dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation. In 1892, the newly formed Populist Party met in

Omaha, Nebraska to restore the government of the republic to the hands of the plain people, with which class it originated. They called for the people to bypass the corrupt legislatures and elect senators directly. In 1900, William A. Clark of Montana provided the kick their proposal needed. Clark had arrived at the newly opened gold fields in Montana Territory in 1863 and transferred the money he had made as a mule trader into banking. He made a fortune repossessing mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans. He invested that fortune in smelters, railroads, a newspaper, and copper mining, becoming one of the state's famous copper kings. In 1889, he was the president of the Montana Constitutional Convention, where he made sure that

mine owners could run the state as they wished. By 1890, Clark had his eyes on a Senate seat. He failed to get the support of the legislature in that year, and for the next decade, he and his rival copper magnate, Marcus Daly of the Anaconda Company, poured vast sums of money into influencing the economy of the state, the location of the Capitol, and the state's politics. Clark finally won his election in 1899, but on the same day he presented his credentials to the Senate, his opponents filed a petition charging him with bribery. An extensive investigation revealed that Clark had bought his seat with bribes ranging from $240 to $100,000, equivalent to almost $4 million today. His representatives had paid debts, bought ranches, and even handed envelopes of cash to legislators. The investigation also showed that Daley had spent a fortune trying to block Clark's election.

Montana politics, it seemed, had become a rich man's game. Aware that the Senate would vote to remove him from his seat, Clark resigned in May 1900. Aware that the Senate would vote to remove him from his seat, Clark resigned in May 1900. In January 1901, a new Montana legislature, containing many of the same men Clark had paid off in 1899, elected him again to the same term from which he had been forced to resign. After an undistinguished term, he retired from the Senate in 1907. Clark's blatant purchase of a Senate seat added momentum to the demand for the direct election of senators. And in 1913, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution established that the power to elect senators must rest in the hands of voters. That measure was supposed to make sure that wealth could not buy a Senate seat.

That the ability to self-fund a campaign is once again a key factor in winning a Senate seat from Montana, and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin seems to be history repeating. Repeating. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Denham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Denham, Massachusetts.