Gourmet politics

Barnie Day was a Democratic delegate from Patrick County from his election in 1997 through the 2001 session. A former county administrator and business owner, he is now a banker.

Consider this: Despite the fact that less than a handful of House and Senate races are even contested this year, despite the fact that Virginians won’t pick a new Big Three -- governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general -- any time soon, despite the fact that the Big Three respective slates are not even decided yet, despite the fact that money raised for the early Democratic presidential primary is not accounted for here …

Nearly $37 million has been raised this election cycle (through the June 30 reporting period for all but the statewides, through the end of December for them) here in Virginia -- $36,823,688, to be exact, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Can that be so? Can $37 million already have flowed into the political process here in staid, old, hide-bound, cash-strapped Virginny?

Press coverage has been localized, and otherwise scattered.

Speaker of the House Bill Howell’s half a million dollar effort grabbed a few headlines. As did Republican Majority Leader Morgan Griffith’s $176,255. Same with the $1.5 million primary scuffle between Republicans Tommy Norment and Paul Jost for the 3rd District Senate seat.

Most of the newspapers around the state, at least the dailies, ran a few paragraphs on the money efforts of their own House and Senate candidates.

But the big picture is astonishing, even to those of us who know that money is so pervasive in Virginia politics.

In terms of money raised, individual House and Senate candidates, Democrat and Republican, have hauled in, to date, more than $16 million for races that are, for the most part, uncontested.

More than $9 million of that was raised by Senate candidates. And, yes, Tommy Norment led the field, reporting through the end of June $881,953. And, yes, on the House side, Morgan Griffith dominated, edging Jack Rollison, who lost in the Republican primary and subsequently joined Gov. Warner’s administration as a transportation expert.

Chicken feed, all things considered.

The real money -- more than $20 million -- was raised by special interests, special agenda groups -- by so-called political action committees, so-called “leadership” committees (more than $8 million of this total), referendum groups (more than $7 million), and so on.

A note here: undoubtedly a lot of this money is “over-lap,” and is herein counted twice. For example: $10,000 raised by a political action committee and subsequently contributed to a candidate is also counted as raised by that candidate. Given enough time, you could isolate this over-lap using VPAP data, but it would probably take a Cray computer and the matrix would reach to the moon.

The point is this: the political process in Virginia is literally awash in cash.

So…

Who’s giving all this money?

Top givers, by industry: real estate and construction ($3,548,541), health care ($2,276,364), law ($2,223,601), technology and communication ($2,166,710), finance and insurance ($2,028,847), retail and service businesses ($1,859,034), energy and natural resources ($1,555,235), transportation ($1,254,033), agriculture ($883,662), and on and on and on.

Top givers, by name, excluding the party PACs, which account for the top five slots: Altria, the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, the Virginia Bankers Association, Verizon, McGuire Woods, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Shenandoah Electronic Intelligence, the Virginia Tech Foundation, AT&T PAC, the Virginia Credit Union PAC, Troutman Sanders, the Realtors PAC of Virginia, John M. Gregory, the University of Virginia Foundation, Wachovia, and on and on and on.

By name, 46 entities have given at least $100,000 each, to date, during this reporting cycle.

Is there a message in all of this?

Sure there is.

If you want to play in Virginia politics, get your checkbook out.

Make Martha proud.

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