Why Eric Cantor Really
Lost – A Grassroots Revolt
Eric Cantor’s primary loss to
Dave Brat has sent shock waves through United States politics. Cantor, the Republican majority leader of the
House lost 28,902 to Brat’s 36,120. Cantor
spent $5 million ($173. per vote) and Brat spent $122,000 ($3.33 per vote).
So, why did Cantor lose?
The major reason is the low turnout.
There are 473,032 registered voters in Virginia’s 7th
congressional district. In 2012, Cantor
received 222,983 votes in the General Election.
Just as Cantor deserted the country by caring more about Israel than
about America, and doing his utmost to prevent the government from functioning,
the voters responded in kind, abandoning him at the polling place.
But the real reason is that campaigns, in both the
Republican and Democratic parties, have become “professionalized.” Candidates hire professional campaign
management organizations, most based in Washington, D.C., to manage and run
their campaigns. This strategy is not only expensive (where do you think Cantor
spent his $5 million?) but it cuts the voters out of the process.
Increasingly, candidates are marketed like products. Special interests provide copious amounts of
money and voters are reduced to the role of consumers, allowed to choose on
Election Day between either the Republican or
Democratic brand of candidate. The
voters are frozen out of the political process as a result.
These professionalized campaigns
are not only expensive, but, run out of Washington with a permanent staff of itinerant
operatives, they know little to nothing about the local politics of the races
they manage. They depend on polling. The late Speaker of the House, the late
Tip O’Neill, once famously said, “All politics is local.”
As a result of this professionalizing of campaigns, the exclusion
of the voters results in defective strategies and low voter turnout. In low turnout elections, anything can
happen. Had the media had a broader view
of events on Tuesday, June 10, 2014; it would have noticed that the voter
turnout in New Jersey was even more anemic.