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May 08, 2006
Democratic Political Consultants: Not Just Incompetent, But Greedy, Too
If you feel like you aren't quite cynical enough yet about American electoral politics, check out Walter Shapiro's horrifying piece in Salon on the slimy world of political consultants. Did you know that both Republican and Democratic consultants pocket commissions of 10-15% of every TV ad buy? That Bob Shrum's company made $6 million (plus reimbursement for production costs) to bungle the 2004 Kerry campaign? That consultants often get "victory bonuses" not only for wins in the general election, but even for wins in barely contested primaries?
Hey - why don't the Dems take a page from the playbook of their trial lawyer benefactors, and make it all or nothing for consultants? 33% if they win, zilch if they lose. Maybe then you'd see them go for the jugular more often.
This morass of sleaze and complacency shows why the netroots needs to do more than just raise money for Democratic candidates. All the money Howard Dean raised in 2004 didn't mean much once he hired the same old hacks to make his ads. And why do incompetents like Bob Shrum still have jobs?
We need to be thinking about ways to shake up every aspect of Democratic business as usual. We need to encourage creativity and fresh blood by funding innovative consulting startups. We need to bring the online world's innovation to the hidebound world of political TV advertising. And we need to do it
Posted by tedf at May 8, 2006 10:49 PM
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