Huffington Magazine Issue 72 | Page 51

AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE CRACKING THE CODE after 40 years of Democratic rule in the House. Holding just a small majority in the House through the 1990s and early 2000s, Republican leaders put heavy pressure on their members to raise larger and larger sums of money in order to protect incumbents and go after vulnerable Democratic seats. Republican leaders also placed term limits on committee chairmanships and chose leaders based on how much money they could raise for the party. Democrats, while not adopting the term limits, responded by increasing pressure on their safe incumbents to raise money for their party. “If you were trying to become a ranking member or, if you’re in the majority, the committee chair, if you don’t raise tons of money for the party you’ve got no chance,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), another campaign finance reform leader in Congress. “No matter how loyal you may be, no matter how much work you do, no matter how smart you may be, you’ve got very little chance of getting one of those positions.” “It’s implied,” said Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a freshman Democrat from Texas who supports the Sarbanes bill. “If you do not par- HUFFINGTON 10.27.13 ticipate in this [fundraising], you diminish your ability to be influential. Whether it’s gaining a committee assignment, whether it’s getting the help that you need on legislation that you want to carry, whatever it is, you’re just seen as not a team player.” The current system of fundraising basically requires members of Congress to devote huge amounts of time to calling and meeting with donors able to provide maximum contributions. On Nov. 16, 2012, little more than a week after the election, House Democratic leadership gathered freshman members together for an introduction to life in Washington. This included a PowerPoint pre- Sen Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) describes the experience of calling donors to ask for campaign contributions “soulcrushing.”