Horace Deets Quotes

Congressman are spending too much time raising money.

The arms race for money being what it is, fundraising starts shortly after someone is elected to Congress.

When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.

In order to survive politically, you've got to have a big-buck fundraiser at least one a year.

I talked to congressmen who really hate having to go to the many fundraisers, but they see it as a necessary part of their job.

The first thing I learned is that campaigns are about money. I had this romantic idea that campaigns were about law and debates and so forth, which is just not true. It's about money.

We have to get rid of the constant fundraising that happens inside the Congress. Before, political parties used to raise money; now, individual members are raising money through the DCCC and the RCCC. It is absolutely corrupt.

A CBS spokesman said the network's policy was tightened in September 2006 to forbid contributions to political campaigns. Previously, there was a bit of wiggle room.

Eventually, money wins in politics.

Smilin' for the Presidency

We have become part-time Senators and full time fund-raisers. Even the schedule of the Senate itself is now arranged around the need to raise money for the next political campaign, rather than around the need to solve the nation's problems and do the people's business.

American politics is money and thirty second spots.

So long as politicians need millions to win a seat in Congress and nearly a billion to contest the White House, they will sanctify the methods needed to raise such sums.

Public [campaign] financing and free television time are the things that will diminish the high influence that money has on politics.

The legislation is made up down on K street

In running for Congress, you have to raise over $2 million. You are going to end up shaking hands with people with whom you would rather not shake hands. 95 percent of all the candidates with the most money, win.

To get on an important [Congressional] committee, a member has to raise a certain amount of money per election cycle. If he does not, he will be dropped from the committee. Both parties actually have a formal price tag for that they call A, B and C committees.

Money is the mother's milk of politics

A typical member of Congress devotes several hours a day to asking for contributions and several more to worrying about how her donors will feel about her votes on the floor.

Until the 1980s, candidates spent a fraction of their time talking to donors; just a few weeks a year, a little more right before an election. True, they'd fund raise from the wealthy interests, as they do now, but it was a minuscule part of their job: policy and constituent services were the heart of the work.

Most elected officials don't want you to know about the world of political fundraising because they fear that it paints an unflattering portrait of public life.

I've always done party building and party fundraising.

I think fundraising has a lot to do with political viability.

When I was 27, having never run for office before, I decided to run for Congress.

A lot of celebrities can raise money for you if you are running for political office.