Friends with money

There was a scene late in Monday’s season premier of “24” where ex-FBI agent Renee Walker is getting ready to go back under cover with a group of Russian gangsters she’d busted a few years previous, and our man Jack Bauer is trying to get her to go over the details of their fictional backstory. Renee, whose black eyeliner indicates that now she’s all edgy and stuff, snaps at Keifer that it doesn’t matter how detailed or well-rehearsed the story is. The gangsters will take one look at her and decide whether or not she’s legit.

I thought about that scene again this evening, listening to the news continue its freak-out over a) Scott “Cosmo” Brown’s 4-point victory in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, and b) the Supreme Court’s ruling today striking down some restrictions on corporate campaign contributions. (At the moment, Keith Olbermann’s in the next room telling me that it’s “this century’s Dred Scott decision.” Really? C’mon Keith, chill the frak out.)

While money will always play a role in who wins an election (not only allowing a campaign to buy ads and other materials, but signaling relative strength), the choice of candidate and strength of the ground organization will continue to be a bigger factor.

Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in the Massachusetts election, didn’t run TV ads until about a week and a half ago. Worse than that, it’s been widely reported that she took a laissez-faire­ approach to knocking on doors and shaking hands. Had she flexed her ground game, she might’ve learned that voters even in flaming liberal Massachusetts are worried about spending, and that national health care reform doesn’t particularly resonate with them since they already have a state mandate to buy coverage (an initiative of former Republican governor Mitt Romney).

Face time with voters is always what wins elections, and it always will. Want to counter the message put out by corporate propagandists? Prove them wrong with your record, and then recruit volunteers to tell your story. If you aren’t willing and able to do that, then you probably don’t deserve to win.

I say, bring on the corporate propaganda – but only on the condition that their lobbies aren’t allowed to hide behind PACs with innocuous-sounding names like “Concerned Americans for America” or crap like that. If Blue Cross wants to send out mailers opposing health care reform, they need to carry, in bright red 16-point font, “Brought to You by the People You’re Paying $1,000 a month.”