John Sarbanes Quotes

You have a burden going into any campaign when you're raising money to fund that effort because there's always a desire to spend more money than you have.

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.

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

It is now clear that giving to a candidate’s PAC is equivalent to giving to his campaign; the leaders of the PAC are, for all practical purposes, are the campaign’s bag men.

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.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

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.

It would be a lot cheaper for me not to have to raise tens of millions of dollars to elect progressive candidates who will raise my taxes.

I've always done party building and party fundraising.

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

Hillary Clinton is doing a thank-you for the money, largely because she wants them to continue giving it to her. Make no mistake about that. And that is almost the difference in the two campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, in a nutshell. It's a stark contrast.

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.

What is a super PAC? It’s like a PAC that got bitten by a radioactive lobbyist.

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.

A government shutdown provides opportunities for both political parties to raise money from their base.

That’s what Presidents do in modern times. They rattle a cup in the homes of the very, very wealthy..

Money is the mother's milk of politics

Spending limits have proven a monumental failure at limiting campaign spending in presidential elections, merely diverting the money underground.

There are three things that are important in politics today: money, money and money.

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.

This Court now concludes that independent [political] expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.

Even though Mr. Trump can give his campaign as much of his own money as he wants to, he can't ask other people to front the money for him and promise to pay them back later without reporting the arrangement in a timely fashion to the Federal Election Commission.

Indiana's ninth congressional district isn't historically known as a fount of congressional contributions. That said, if you look at my fundraising history, we've succeeded.

I do not donate to any political party.