Jeff Golden: Pathway to victory.

"In this District, this year, organization beats money."

Jeff Golden has an active campaign.  He tells me he has some 400 individual contributors to his campaign, he has campaign volunteers, he is out talking with voters, he knows the issues, he has an experienced campaign manager, and he has been in the public eye doing politics here for some 40 years.

Golden sounds optimistic.

Golden took a risk when he announced that he would not accept PAC money from any source. It shut off one potential source of money, but Golden has an alternative.  A large body of people have been contributing for decades, either to him or causes that he has promoted: public radio, public TV, his TV show Immense Possibilities, and his own political campaigns. That is where the 400 contributors came from.

The real risk to not taking campaign money from PACs, Golden says, is that political endorsements are tied to wanting and accepting the money. "The matrix of party leaders and PACs who fund campaigns are overly comfortable with the way things are now," Golden said. "A PAC chairman told me 'you better rethink this PAC thing, Jeff. If you stick with your position of not taking money the endorsements will go someplace else.' He was right."

Golden says he doesn't want to be in a position where some lobbyist thinks he is owed a vote. He wants to be able to vote his conscience and the interests of his District. "Critical thinkers, who have well thought out independent views of the issues, are likely to be annoying to those upstate PACs."

Candidate Kevin Stine questioned Golden on whether he would be as conflicted by individual contributions as would be a candidate who got money from "good PACs."  Golden said there is a huge difference. He said his three contributions greater than $1,000 came from personal friends and people who have been supporting his Immense Possibilities show for years, and like his approach to public issues. None of his 400 contributors are lobbyists, he said. They don't spend their workdays at the Capitol building, and their jobs don't depend on slipping into a legislator's office and getting him or her to add a word or sentence to a bill as it works its way through committee. 

"Mine is the cleanest money possible in an imperfect world," Golden said, "money from individual citizens who agree with me and trust me."

At a forum in Ashland

So far his reported contributions exceed the contributions of Athena Goldberg, his nearest competitor. She has been the candidate who has secured PAC endorsements and contributions. She has noted those in her Voters Pamphlet page.

The money he is raising is going to campaign organization, printed material, and to Facebook, not TV, radio, or newspaper ads. The official state record of campaign contributions and expenditures show that Golden has spent some $1,983 on Facebook ads. Athena Goldberg has spent $2,434. Julian Bell has spent $451. Kevin Stine shows no Facebook ads yet. Traditional media payments are zero for all four candidates.

Jeff Golden said he realized that the Primary election winner would likely face a tsunami of advertising from Jessica Gomez, the presumed GOP nominee. 

I asked him how he would deal with that. Other Democrats would presumably take PAC money and try to match the GOP advertising dollar for dollar. I asked if that might make them stronger general election candidates.

From Golden's Facebook promotions.

Money won't matter, he said. Turnout is what will matter, he said.  A giant money-driven campaign will backfire, and that would be true for the Democrat, as well, if they go the big-money route, he said.

"The Koch Brothers talked about investing $400 million in various state races in 2018," he said.  "Republicans spent $800,000 in Alan DeBoer's election campaign in 2016 and Gomez might spend two million dollars.  It wont matter because if she does spend that much, then 1.5 million of it would be wasted."  You can only spend so much money, he said, and when you spend too much on mailers, TV, and radio you just call attention yourself as being indebted to your contributors. It bolsters my case for independence and integrity, he said.  

Democrats need to turn out, and will, Golden said. Golden said that he has a long track record of supporting progressive Democratic values, that this is a Democratic district, and no amount of money will convince Democrats to vote for a Republican, not this year. Republican ads--and Trump--will just motivate Democrats. He expects them to turn out.

And he has the organization to do it.  He said that Cathy Shaw, his campaign manager (and former wife) "has regularly beat campaigns that spent far more money."  She does it by getting our voters to vote.


[Note: I consider myself open minded about this campaign. There are things to like about each candidate. Like other long-time residents of the area, I have known Golden for years and have contributed to his various campaigns, as well as to public radio and public TV when he was soliciting funds, and I donated to Immense Possibilities. I have not contributed money to his political campaign this year, but I did give to Julian Bell and Kevin Stine. As I have said in other disclaimer notes, my giving money doesn't represent fealty; it represents respect for the hard job of raising money for political campaigns, so I frequently give to several, including anyone who asks. I am not a cheerleader for any campaign. I consider myself a centrist Democrat.  All four of the Democratic candidates are a little too liberal for my taste. I voted for Hillary in 2016, but I predicted Trump would win.]