Question on rich Dems using their own money

[Kelvin Mace]

I am having an argument about Cruella de Harris and her plan to put $5-$10 million of her own cash into her race.

Did Kerry put any of his millions into to his campaign? What about Corizine, Kennedy, Cantwell, etc? I've been looking at the Open Secrets, etc but can't find exactly this question.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Regarding Cantwell

I can't speak for the others, but I do know about my (hopefully, soon to be ex) Senator, Maria Cantwell.

She put in over $10 million dollars of her own money, raised by selling her stock options as a founding employee of RealMedia. She refused contributions from the Democratic Party and did very little in the way of traditional fundraising, asserting that she would not take one dime of special interest money.

That stand ended up putting her in a bind, however, as by the end of the campaign she had $3.8 million dollars in campaign debt, all of it classed under law as personal debt. As a result, she became one of the leading special interest prostitutes in the Senate and OpenSecrets.org ranks her in 5th place for money raised in the 2006 election cycle, at $6,796,965 so far.

[bryant69]

2. It's an interesting question

But of course it underlines how we need public financing of campaigns.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Agreed,

Thanks for the link.

[sybylla]

3. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) runs almost entirely on his own money

I'm sure he takes some contributions but he's a brazillionaire who really doesn't care.