Claire McCaskill Quotes

We have to talk about the way we finance campaigns.

There were 14,000 people at the rally for the president in Ohio. There were another 8,000 people in Virginia. If all 22,000 of those people opened their wallets and gave $1,000 each, that would be less than one donation from a billionaire to the super PACs. And that's why he's in for the fight of his life.

Congressman are spending too much time raising money.

The campaign finance law is so intricate that I can’t figure it out.

Money is the mother's milk of politics

Let's face it, the subject of campaign finance is not always scintillating. But it's incredibly important.

We have two and half million individual campaign contributions, more than any campaign in history.

The first thing you need to run for President is a budget of around $20 million dollars a day.

Online fundraising is so important to the Democratic Party.

It is campaign money that calls the tune, a fact recognized by every politician within a few minutes after getting into politics.

We have to have campaign contributions to apprise the public about our qualifications.

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.

In Canada we have limits on campaign spending and public funding of campaigns. This makes it easier for people [candidates] who don't have access to huge amounts of money.

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

Everybody's an expert at campaign financing.

We’re going to the same people. Virtually all of my major donors are the same as their [the Democratic National Committee] major donors …. I can never compete with the President of the United States or the First Lady.

State party central committees were not providing very much help or raising much money, so the legislative leadership people started stepping in.

The donor party is the 2 million people who contribute more than $5000 to political candidates. Unless you are elected by the donor party, you cannot run for major office.

We have to keep the old man’s money coming into the campaign but keep him out of it.

The men and women who now run for Congress have special features. Most of them are much wealthier than their constituents. Surprisingly few have strong policy interests or experience. Most are willing to spend a day or two or three each week asking strangers for money on the telephone, a demeaning but obligatory exercise. Most have internalized an ethical code that allows them to solicit campaign contributions from people directly affected by legislation they vote on. This is not rare or even unusual — it’s standard

Spending for congressional campaigns is getting to be like the arms race.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.

Not since the gilded age has our politics been opened so wide to corporate contribution and donations from secret sources.

The 113th Congress has spent much of the year doing nothing but collecting campaign contributions …

There's no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million or more. I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it.