Democrats have billionaires, too

By Michael Kreps, Las Vegas

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

I find it amusing when Democratic voters scream about how the Koch brothers and the Republican Party spend so much on campaigns. In a letter to the Sun (“Angst over lack of work by Congress,” Nov. 3) a writer said Democrats “must scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with the estimated $100 they contribute to the Democratic campaigns,” and calls the large donations of the Republican Party the “revenge of the billionaires.”

I guess the writer has never heard of George Soros and Tom Steyer — billionaires who contribute millions of dollars to Democratic causes. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $127 million this cycle, about $30 million more than the Republican Senatorial Committee. The Wall Street Journal said that between 2005 and 2011, labor unions who help finance the Democratic Party spent $4.4 billion, far outspending any conservative rival.

I agree a lot of money is spent on elections by billionaires, but they don’t always get their favorite elected. Sheldon Aldelson, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., spent millions in 2012 trying to get Mitt Romney elected president, and that failed.

What frightens me more than campaign spending is how ignorant voters are when it comes to the candidates and the main issues.

Let the billionaires spend all the money they want. Many people get jobs making the ads and selling the candidates. That fits with the concept of taking money from the 1 percent and redistributing the wealth.