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Speaker 1

00:00

-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight concerns political fundraising. And before you roll your eyes, this is not going to be about how money corrupts presidential candidates. For that, you can read much more on your most annoying friend's Facebook posts. Dan, that is a comment on a picture of a baby.

Speaker 1

00:19

What the f*** is wrong with you? Take it down! -... I would like to talk instead about congressional fundraising, which is much less covered, but no less astonishing.

Speaker 1

00:30

In the 2014 election cycle, candidates for the House and Senate raised a combined 1.7 billion dollars. That's a lot of money. That's more than it cost to buy 230 million tubes of hemorrhoidal cooling gel. And it's somehow even more upsetting.

Speaker 1

00:48

Now, interestingly, much of that money has to be raised 1 way or another by the politicians themselves, which they have complained about for years, and say that it can be the worst part of their job. You know,

Speaker 2

01:00

I hated raising money. Hated it. It's painful, frankly, to continually ask people for money.

Speaker 3

01:11

If Don and I could tell you how many hours we spend with our good colleagues on our side of the issues talking about raising money, it would be an embarrassment. Because it is an embarrassment.

Speaker 1

01:24

Wow, an embarrassment. That is a strong statement. Although, he may be overestimating Congress's capacity for embarrassment.

Speaker 1

01:31

Because bear in mind, we are talking about a place where these moments happened.

Speaker 4

01:35

Do you like green eggs and ham?

Speaker 1

01:37

-♪

Speaker 4

01:39

I do not like them, Sam, I am I do

Speaker 5

01:40

not like green eggs and ham. ♪ -♪ I do not like them, Sam, I am I do

Speaker 4

01:41

not like green eggs and ham.

Speaker 6

01:43

2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits a dollar, all for the Gators. Stand up and holler. Go Gators.

Speaker 7

01:51

Meet the Mets, meet the Mets. Step right up and greet the Mets.

Speaker 8

01:57

Don't know much about chemistry. Don't know much toxicology Don't know what's ammonium nitrate Except it's easy to detonate But I do know that IST Was used to increase our security What a much safer world this could be. Don't know much about gaspoline.

Speaker 1

02:24

Oh, my God! What is most shocking about that last clip is that he read the room and decided, You know what? I think they want to hear another verse.

Speaker 1

02:33

I think I'm gonna do another verse here. I'm reading this room and I'm doing it. But the sheer amount of time politicians spend fundraising is not just embarrassing, it's horrifying. Some say the members can spend anywhere from 25% to 50% of their time on it.

Speaker 1

02:50

But former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle once guessed that in the 2 years before an election, senators can spend two-thirds of their time raising money. And if two-thirds of the work you do is strictly about the money. You're not a legislator, you're Robert De Niro at that point. So, so tonight, tonight, let's look at where that time actually goes.

Speaker 1

03:11

And let's begin with the most obvious form of fundraising, fundraisers. These are usually shitty parties in D.C. Bars, restaurants, or townhouses, and there are a lot of them. The Sunlight Foundation estimates that in the last election cycle, members of Congress held over 2,800 fundraisers.

Speaker 1

03:30

Washington is like Rod Stewart's haircut. Party in the front, party in the back. Frankly, too much party and no business anywhere to be found. -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Fundraisers are so ubiquitous in D.C., you could conceivably construct a whole day around them, which is exactly what former Iowa representative Bruce Braley did on September 20th, 2012, when at 8.30 a.m., he held a fundraising breakfast, followed at noon by a fundraising lunch, and ending with a fundraising evening reception.

Speaker 1

04:00

And by that time, he was less a member of Congress than he was a sentient storage container for canapes. In fact, fundraisers are such an integral part of D.C.'s economy, some restaurants derive a decent chunk of their income just from hosting them. Look at Johnny's Half Shell. It's a seafood restaurant just blocks from the Capitol.

Speaker 1

04:20

In the past 10 years, a whopping 948 congressional fundraisers have been held there. It is almost inevitable that your elected representative will have spent at least some time in a place that markets itself thusly.

Speaker 6

04:34

Here's to the champagne and the oysters at Johnny's. Here's to Johnny's crab cakes. Here's to the gliders at happy hour.

Speaker 7

04:41

Here's to the hot shell crabs at Johnny's half shell on the terrace. Here's to Johnny's! Here's to you and your time at China's South Show.

Speaker 1

04:51

He is... He is a significant figure in D.C. Influential decisions are being made under the watchful eye of a man who looks like Jon Bon Jovi's less talented step-cousin, Jim Ban-jar-vi.

Speaker 1

05:05

Some... Some politicians even turn their own personal milestones into fundraising opportunities, like Republican Andy Barr, who held a 41st birthday fundraiser, which cost a minimum of $500 per person to attend. Or there's Florida representative, Ileana Ross-Lehtinen, who turned her 30th wedding anniversary into a fundraiser, an event that is almost breathtaking in its sadness. Because a 30th wedding anniversary should not be about raising political capital.

Speaker 1

05:35

It should be about eating a largely silent dinner, killing 2 bottles of wine, forgetting to have sex, and falling asleep to a Friends rerun. Honor the anniversary and do it right. -♪ ♪ -() And in perhaps the most pathetic bid for hipness available. Many members of Congress will even stage fundraisers at pop concerts.

Speaker 9

05:56

The power of Taylor Swift not only changes the music business, it makes money, and so much so that some of Washington's elites are capitalizing on the Pop Princess' 1989 tour, which stops over in D.C. Tonight. We have over 10 Republicans, 5 Democrats, 3 PACs, all raising money off this Taylor Swift concert.

Speaker 9

06:13

Tickets going into thousands upon thousands of dollars. Some of these members we spoke to, specifically Representative Beyer of Virginia, who's having a fundraiser. He goes, his daughter turned him on to Taylor Swift. He likes her feminist lyrics, and that is why they're moving forward.

Speaker 1

06:26

It's true. Representative Don Beyer held a fundraiser at a Taylor Swift concert. And I don't know about you, but this man is not feeling 22.

Speaker 1

06:36

--LAUGHTER --He is feeling and looking very much 65. But amazingly, all of this is glamorous compared to the hours and hours that politicians spent fundraising over the phone. A few years ago, a PowerPoint presentation from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to freshman lawmakers leaked. And it was showing their model schedule, which suggested 4 hours a day of call time.

Speaker 1

07:01

4 hours on the phone. The only time that makes sense is if you're trying to have phone sex with Sting. Do... Have you come yet?

Speaker 1

07:10

Have... It's been 3 hours. Have you come yet? I've got stuff to do, Gordon.

Speaker 1

07:15

This can't be my day. And look, horrendously, lawmakers have even been pulled out of hearings to go do that call time.

Speaker 10

07:25

The first week I was down here, we were having a committee hearing in education, and My chief of staff at that time came in and said, you have to leave. You know, we went into the ante room and I said, we don't have to go. And she goes, you have to go make phone calls.

Speaker 10

07:40

And I looked at her and I went, this is my first hearing and you're coming in and asking me to leave? How am I gonna learn anything?

Speaker 1

07:48

Exactly. She was a rookie legislator. She needed to learn how to do her job. The Knicks don't pull rookie Chris Dapps Porzingis out of a game so he can go make cold calls to season ticket holders.

Speaker 1

08:01

Because that would not be the best use of Chris Stapp's pausingus' time. And if you think that sounds like a dehumanizing process, rest assured, it is.

Speaker 2

08:11

I felt used when I had to go raise money. I was embarrassed, I thought it was ugly, I thought it was demeaning.

Speaker 11

08:20

My staff kept saying, you gotta go do it. I said, I don't like it. You get a Rolodex and you get to go outside the building for a whole day and dial numbers of jerks you've never heard of in your whole life to get money out of them.

Speaker 1

08:35

He's absolutely right. If you want to get money out of

Speaker 5

08:38

a bunch of jerks you've never heard of in your whole life to get money out of them. He's absolutely right.

Speaker 1

08:38

If you want to get money out of a bunch of jerks you've never heard of before, you shouldn't have to call them on the phone when you can simply open a vape shop. Boom! Done!

Speaker 1

08:46

Done! And if you're wondering why he said he had to go outside the building, that's because according to federal law, members of Congress can't solicit or receive donations in their offices. So, each party's congressional committee has set up call rooms in their party headquarters, just a few blocks from the Capitol. We couldn't find any footage from inside those rooms, but they sound pretty grim.

Speaker 4

09:10

They've got cubicles and they've got a headset, and they often have a minder who sort of sits at their shoulder and makes sure that they don't take too long on each call. They say that the building can really start to stink after a while. After a few hours, it starts to smell like a locker room.

Speaker 1

09:24

Yeah, but what do you expect? Half the people in that room probably spent their morning slurping down oysters in an 80s hockey player's sweaty crab shack. And just about all lawmakers have to do this.

Speaker 1

09:37

Even those like Eleanor Holmes Norton in ludicrously safe seats. She regularly gets re-elected with over 80% of the vote. But despite that, roughly 6 years ago, she wound up leaving this voicemail for a lobbyist.

Speaker 12

10:00

And long and deep work. In fact, it's been my major work, on the committee and subcommittee. It's been essentially in your sector.

Speaker 12

10:13

I'm simply candidly calling to ask for a contribution.

Speaker 1

10:17

That is so depressing to hear. Even before you think about her calling from a room filled with the odor of Steny Hoyer's shrimp burps. --LAUGHTER- And remember, her seat is safe.

Speaker 1

10:30

It's so safe, she barely needs campaign funds for herself. The problem is, members are still expected to pay dues to their own party, which can then be distributed to candidates in tougher races. BuzzFeed actually got its hands on a DCCC spreadsheet 2 years ago, showing the amount of money the committee expects each member to pay, with figures ranging from $125,000 at the low end, all the way up to $800,000 at the top. So, is it any wonder that politicians are hitting up their customer base harder than a Girl Scout with gambling debts.

Speaker 1

11:02

Oh, 2 boxes of Samoas? Nah, nah, fuck that. Fuck that. 4 boxes.

Speaker 1

11:08

4 boxes or I walk. 4 boxes. You get 4 boxes. I know where you live.

Speaker 1

11:14

-♪♪ I'll walk with you. -♪♪ And if you are desperately trying to rack up dollars, that can affect the kind of people that you are targeting on the phone, as Senator Chris Murphy explains.

Speaker 9

11:29

For a Senate race, I'm not calling anybody who doesn't have the chance of giving me at least a thousand dollars. So, you gotta imagine that the people I'm calling, you know, are folks that are, you know, making a half a million to a million dollars, and, you know, they have fundamentally different problems than everybody else.

Speaker 1

11:45

And that is a huge problem. Because it cannot help but affect the way you see the world. If you're only calling donors rich enough that their main concerns are estate taxes, or which Belgian kimono their cats will wear that day.

Speaker 1

12:00

That's a good choice, though. But to be fair, now, to be fair, direct fundraising by candidates is just 1 part of a system that also includes super PACs and so-called dark money. Although, to be even fairer, it is still the largest part. And regulating campaign finance is going to be difficult.

Speaker 1

12:17

For a start, there's the Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley versus Vallejo decision, which basically held that spending money is a form of speech. And sure, there are times when that's probably true. For example, A 50-year-old man spending money on a convertible is loudly saying, I would like to sexually disappoint a woman half my age. He's...

Speaker 1

12:39

And we're hearing him loud and clear. He's being heard. But a bigger problem is that while both sides agree they hate this, neither wants to unilaterally back down first. It's basically a Cold War, but worse.

Speaker 1

12:52

Because at least in the real Cold War, we got a trip to the moon and the third best Rocky villain out of it. Which is not to say that there are not some attempts to address parts of the problem. Democrats have pushed the Disclose Act, which would force more transparency on dark money. And 1 Republican congressman has something called the Stop Act, which would prohibit members of Congress from personally asking for donations.

Speaker 1

13:15

But those would be very small fixes. Now, a larger idea is perhaps the Government by the People Act, which would give tax credits and provide public funding for candidates by matching small donations at a ratio of at least 6 to 1. But, before you get too excited about that idea, 2 slight caveats. First, we asked, and it would cost an estimated 500 million dollars a year, which is a lot.

Speaker 1

13:38

And second, GovTrack.us, which offers predictions on whether bills are likely to pass, gives it a 0 percent chance in our current Congress. Just flat 0. Which kind of makes you wonder if they try to find something more harsh than 0, like negative 0, or, oh, hell, 0. Or just a 0 with a frowny face in it.

Speaker 1

14:00

And that's a bit frustrating. Because remember, people in Congress are the ones constantly complaining about the time that they are forced to waste on fundraising. In fact, Steve Israel, a Democrat from Long Island, announced his retirement at the beginning of this year, saying, I don't think I can spend another day in another call room making another call begging for money. And since he is leaving anyway, I figured he might be willing to shine a light on some of the aspects of fundraising that we don't usually see.

Speaker 1

14:28

So I sat down with Steve Israel last week. Take a look. Congressman, thank you so much for agreeing to talk with me.

Speaker 7

14:34

Thank you.

Speaker 1

14:35

So, let's start with political fundraising. In your prime, how many of those fundraisers were you physically having to go to a year?

Speaker 7

14:43

So all told, over 16 years, I've done, just for my own re-election, 1,600 fundraising events.

Speaker 1

14:50

Holy shit.

Speaker 7

14:51

Actual events.

Speaker 1

14:51

That's 1 every 3 days, more or

Speaker 11

14:53

less.

Speaker 7

14:54

Over 16 years, yeah. That's a lot.

Speaker 5

14:57

I'm going

Speaker 1

14:57

to say 3 words to you, Congressman. Johnny's half shell.

Speaker 7

15:03

I know it will.

Speaker 1

15:04

Oh, yeah, no shit, you do. Yeah. What's it like in there?

Speaker 7

15:08

It is like... Look, it's like any restaurant in America.

Speaker 1

15:11

Which has lots of people in suits raising money.

Speaker 5

15:15

The

Speaker 7

15:15

difference is you have candidates and members of Congress and supporters who are contributing $1,000 for the privilege of having some shellfish.

Speaker 1

15:25

It's just, it's interesting to me, it's how every working congressperson in this city has a basic understanding of Johnny's Half Shell.

Speaker 7

15:35

Right. I don't think I've ever had a fundraiser for myself at that restaurant. I just don't remember.

Speaker 1

15:42

No, in 2011, you had a breakfast fundraiser at the Half Shell that started at 8.30 a.m. Right. Congressman, no 1 goes to a seafood restaurant at 8.30 in the morning without expecting something in return.

Speaker 1

15:58

No 1 is saying, well, I was gonna be there anyway to have my bucket of breakfast, shrimp. I'll swim by Steve's thing.

Speaker 7

16:04

And that is the problem with the system, is that people, believe that if they are in that room, having supported a campaign, that they get access.

Speaker 1

16:13

And in case access to Steve Israel wasn't enticing enough, A review of his fundraiser invites threw up a common theme. Some congressmen have barbecue, some have fishing trips. What was your thing?

Speaker 7

16:26

I did, Long Island Pizza Night.

Speaker 1

16:28

But there was another theme to your fundraisers, wasn't there?

Speaker 7

16:30

Yes. What was it?

Speaker 1

16:32

Well, I think you know what it was. I'm anxious to know. You had an annual Long Island wine trip, Long Island wine tasting in D.C., Long Island wine and cigar tasting.

Speaker 1

16:44

I hope those were not Long Island cigars. And an event called Chinese Food and Politics, where I'm gonna go ahead and say that you washed down your general sales chicken with a glass of...

Speaker 7

16:54

No, no, no, you cannot bring Long Island wine to Chinese food.

Speaker 1

16:58

Why, does Long Island wine not pair well with Chinese food?

Speaker 7

17:02

Not Washington Chinese food.

Speaker 1

17:03

What does it pair well with, street violence?

Speaker 7

17:06

You're not gonna get me to say 1 negative thing about Long Island Wine. I'm very proud of it.

Speaker 1

17:10

But I hadn't come here to talk about terrible wine. I wanted to talk about the engine room of congressional fundraising. Talk to me about the congressional call center.

Speaker 1

17:19

How important is that place?

Speaker 7

17:21

Well, you've got to have a place to make those calls.

Speaker 1

17:23

What does it look like? Paint me a word picture. Is there, you know, motivational posters on the wall saying, hang in there and try not to think too much about what you're doing.

Speaker 7

17:31

You have a bunch of cubicles set up and those cheap fabric dividers, and you sit at a little desk and you have a phone and you have an assistant next to you and you have a call book, and the call book has sheets of every donor, past donors and their records, and your assistant gets a supporter on the phone and gives the phone to you. And you engage in polite conversation, and then you get to the point, and then you hang up, and then you flip the page to the next donor, and then you make another call, and you continue doing that until you have the resources in order to get re-elected.

Speaker 1

18:09

Oh, my God, that's depressing.

Speaker 7

18:11

Not what our founders had in mind.

Speaker 1

18:13

How do you train people to do it well? Is there a script, like, with small talk and how they could be part of the solution?

Speaker 7

18:19

No, every member has their own approach. My approach was to get right to the point and then have a civilized conversation.

Speaker 1

18:25

Okay. I mean, I guess it makes sense. It's just like someone giving you a massage and starting with the hand job and then working the shoulders. It's fine, it's just unexpected.

Speaker 7

18:35

Well, everybody has their own style and their own preferences.

Speaker 1

18:38

How much time is there between hanging up that phone and the next call?

Speaker 7

18:41

You gotta keep moving. You have to keep moving. If you are in a very competitive district and you know you've gotta raise $1.5 million, that means that you have to raise a certain amount of money every quarter, you break it down to a certain amount of money every month, you break it down to a certain amount of money every week and you break it down to a certain amount of money in every hour of call time.

Speaker 1

19:03

This whole call centre sounds like a shitty telemarketing operation.

Speaker 7

19:07

It is, in my view, a form of torture and the real victims of this torture have become the American people because they believe that they don't have a voice in this system.

Speaker 1

19:19

Now most good telemarketing operations have a boss who holds people's feet to the fire and forces them to make calls and hit their quotas. Who was that boss for you?

Speaker 7

19:30

Well my boss was the prospect of losing my election to a Republican who would undo all the work I did for the middle class.

Speaker 1

19:38

Yeah, but also, I'm getting to the point...

Speaker 5

19:40

I'm getting to the

Speaker 1

19:40

point that you were the chairman.

Speaker 7

19:43

Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.

Speaker 5

19:44

So I

Speaker 7

19:44

was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Speaker 1

19:46

So you were that bot. You were the 1 pushing people to hit quotas.

Speaker 7

19:49

I had a responsibility to tell them, you need to spend time raising money to come to Washington to change the system.

Speaker 1

19:57

And he must have told them that a lot, because In Steve Israel's time as chairman, he managed to push members of the DCCC to hit record fundraising levels.

Speaker 7

20:06

We out-raised the NRCC by $16.2 million. That's never happened before. And it

Speaker 1

20:12

can't have been easy for Steve Israel to hate something he was so demonstrably good at. It's like finding out this guy hates having bees on his face. I mean, he's not wrong.

Speaker 1

20:22

It's absolutely repulsive. It's just weird that he chose to do it in the first place. And with his congressional career coming to an end, it was time to toast Steve Israel in the most appropriate way possible. I brought some Long Island wine in, I believe, the traditional bag.

Speaker 7

20:39

That's a very good drinker, actually. Is that a 2016?

Speaker 1

20:43

Does it go back further than that?

Speaker 7

20:45

I wouldn't recommend drinking it out of the bag.

Speaker 1

20:47

Oh, Congressman, I would never do this to a glass. LAUGHTER

Speaker 5

20:53

CHEERING

Speaker 7

20:57

Not bad for wine, the bag.

Speaker 1

21:01

Sure. That's fair. Yes, what better way to end a bittersweet career than with a bittersweet taste of North Fork Chardonnay? Savour every last drop, Steve.

Speaker 1

21:12

You've earned it.

Speaker 5

21:22

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE you