Stop fundraising, start working, says Fla. Rep. David Jolly, who is seeking to ban federal-elected officials from dialing for dollars
The American public has a low opinion of Congress. Only 14 percent think it's doing a good job. But Congress has excelled in one way. Raising money. Members of Congress raised more than a billion dollars for their 2014 election. And they never stop.
Nearly every day, they spend hours on the phone asking supporters and even total strangers for campaign donations -- hours spent away from the jobs they were elected to do. The pressure on candidates to raise money has ratcheted up since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010. That allowed unlimited spending by corporations, unions and individuals in elections. So our attention was caught by a proposal from a Republican congressman that would stop members of Congress from dialing for dollars. Given what it costs to get elected today, it's either a courageous act, a campaign ploy or political suicide.
Florida Republican David Jolly won a special election to Congress in March 2014. Facing a reelection bid that November, he was happy to get a lesson in fundraising from a member of his party's leadership. But he was surprised by what he learned.
Rep. David Jolly: We sat behind closed doors at one of the party headquarter back rooms in front of a white board where the equation was drawn out. You have six months until the election. Break that down to having to raise $2 million in the next six months. And your job, new member of Congress, is to raise $18,000 a day. Your first responsibility is to make sure you hit $18,000 a day.
Norah O'Donnell: Your first responsibility--
Rep. David Jolly: My first responsibility--
Norah O'Donnell: --as a congressman?
Rep. David Jolly: --as a sitting member of Congress.
Norah O'Donnell: How were you supposed to raise $18,000 a day?
Rep. David Jolly: Simply by calling people, cold-calling a list that fundraisers put in front of you, you're presented with their biography. So please call John. He's married to Sally. His daughter, Emma, just graduated from high school. They gave $18,000 last year to different candidates. They can give you $1,000 too if you ask them to. And they put you on the phone. And it's a script.
Rep. David Jolly: The House schedule is actually arranged, in some ways, around fundraising.
Norah O'Donnell: You're telling me the whole schedule of how work gets done is scheduled around fundraising?
Rep. David Jolly: That's right. You never see a committee working through lunch because those are your fundraising times. And then in between afternoon votes and evening votes, that's when you can see Democrats walking down this street, Republicans walking down that street to spend time on the phone making phone calls.
By law, members of Congress cannot make fundraising calls from their offices. So both parties have set up "call centers" just a few blocks away. This is where the Republicans have theirs.
Norah O'Donnell: So can I go in there?
Rep. David Jolly: I don't think they would let either one of us in here, at this point. Remember I stopped paying my dues.
What Jolly means is that in addition to raising money for their own campaigns, members are supposed to raise thousands of dollars for their parties. That's their dues. If Republican members don't pay up, they can't use the party's call suites. No photos exist of the inside of either the Democratic or Republican centers. But with the help of a staffer, we were able to get into the Republican center with a hidden camera.
Rep. David Jolly: It is a cult-like boiler room on Capitol Hill where sitting members of Congress, frankly I believe, are compromising the dignity of the office they hold by sitting in these sweatshop phone booths calling people asking them for money. And their only goal is to get $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 out of the person on the other end of the line. It's shameful. It's beneath the dignity of the office that our voters in our communities entrust us to serve.
Norah O'Donnell: But you may not have a job if you don't fundraise.
Rep. David Jolly: I'm willing to take that risk.
A risk because David Jolly has pledged to stop personally asking donors for money. And that's not all. In February, he introduced a bill called the "Stop Act," that would ban all federal-elected officials from directly soliciting donations.
Norah O'Donnell: You've spent your life running a commercial roofing company.
Rep. Reid Ribble: Yeah.
Norah O'Donnell: And when you came to Congress and heard how much you have to raise to keep getting re-elected, did you want to quit?
Rep. Reid Ribble: Yeah, I did.
Norah O'Donnell: Are you the only one who feels that way?
Rep. Reid Ribble: No. No. If members would be candid, there's a lot of frustration centered around it. And some of this is the result of Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that opened up really corporate dollars into the system. And so, if you want to have your own voice, if you want your voice to be heard as opposed to some outside group speaking for you, you better-- you better do your job and raise enough money that you can.
After the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, a flood of outside money poured in to Super PACs - political groups which are allowed to spend unlimited dollars on ads to support or attack candidates for office.
Norah O'Donnell: The last few years of Congress have been the most unproductive ever.
Rep. Rick Nolan: Yeah, it's unbelievable. I didn't hardly recognize the place when I came back.
Congressman Rick Nolan, a Democrat from Minnesota, is also co-sponsoring the Stop Act. Nolan was first elected to Congress in 1974 but served just six years. He returned in 2013.
Rep. Rick Nolan: It seems like I took a nap and I came back and I say, "Wow, what happened to this place? What's happened to democracy?" I mean, the Congress of the United States has hardly become a democratic institution anymore.
Norah O'Donnell: Why?
Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, because of all the money in politics, in my judgment.
Norah O'Donnell: What has your party said about how members of Congress should raise money?
Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.
Norah O'Donnell: Thirty hours a week?
Rep. Rick Nolan: Thirty hours is what they tell you you should spend. And it's discouraging good people from running for public office. I could give you names of people who've said, "You know, I'd like to go to Washington and help fix problems, but I don't want to go to Washington and become a mid-level telemarketer, dialing for dollars, for crying out loud."
Norah O'Donnell: You're saying members of Congress are becoming like telemarketers?
Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, 30 hours a week, that's a lot of telemarketing. Probably more than most telemarketers do.
