Arlen Specter 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.

[On campaign fund-raising:] You're just sort of shamelessly begging. That's what federal politics is about.

In the United States 95% of the people who win elections have the most money. That's it. So, money is a big part of elections. But that happens all the time.

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

I'm asking regular folks to be my super PAC.

Have you ever seen a candidate talking to a rich person on television?

I've been outspent by my opponents every time I've run for U.S. Senate.

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.

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

I've been a strong financial and political supporter of, first, President Bush Sr. when he was running for president, and even when he ran for president a time or two and failed.

I supported Pat Toomey when he ran in 2010. I gave him money in September of 2009 because I wanted him to be the U.S. senator. I personally contributed my own money.

Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.

It is not that candidates who get the most money win, but that winning candidates get the most money.

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.

People correctly perceive that the most powerful thing in Washington is money.

Don't come in [to the Senate] without assets and remain that way.... Go out and accumulate some capital and then try and run for the Senate.

A congressman serves a two year term. As soon as he gets elected, he has to start attending fund raisers.

American politics is money and thirty second spots.

History’s pendulum is now swinging back toward the day when political finances were only lightly regulated.

Money is the mother's milk of politics

Many view direct-mail fund-raising as a racket for fleecing the old and easily frightened, about as reputable as lottery mailings or time-share sweepstakes. Particularly on the right, there is a whole ecosystem of spurious committees that use candidates’ likenesses to raise funds—money that the candidates never see.

Money is the mother's milk of everything, and it certainly is the mother's milk of politics.

I do not donate to any political party.

We can write the book on how to run a successful write-in campaign for the United States Senate.