Can you spare a million?

I would like to match the National Rifle Association’s contribution to the Grassley campaign, but I can’t really determine how much it is. I guess I will just send my hundred bucks to Mike Franken and call it even.

Democracy does not come cheap in our country. In a presidential election year, a few billion is spent for federal and state elections. In 2020, Donald Trump at one point reported that he had raised $774 million for the Republican National Committee. Then he raised more, reaching over $1 billion by Election Day. It was all probably legal and a traditional procedure.

That is only part of the 2020 money story. That year, House and Senate races cost almost $4 billion. In most cases, a large part of the money came from outside the states where it was spent. In South Carolina, for example, 90 percent was outside money. Iowa was not far behind.

The process is not new. In 2008, the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain spent well over a total of $1 billion. In 2020, the Biden campaign alone raised $1 billion. In the two-year period leading up to the 2020 election, House and Senate candidates raised $4 billion. There were no self-financed campaigns.

Money doesn’t just talk. It screams. In 2020, Senate races in nine states, including Iowa in third place, spent a couple billion. In first place, North Carolina, campaigns spent $298 million.

Iowa is 31st in population and North Carolina is ninth. Small doesn’t mean cheap, but a couple of clandestine millions go a long way.

Most of the outside money comes from sources that are not identified. They come through committees that are not required to disclose their donors. I find anonymity odd, if not infuriating.

Why should any donation be anonymous? If I send $50, I go on a list. The source of millions, through nonprofit groups and super PACs, remains anonymous. Hidden money is dark money and should be forbidden money.

Is there any way to avoid big bucks from unidentified sources? The internet is promising as a start. My $50 donation to someone a while ago now brings about 150 email solicitations from people who know me well enough to call me Norman or Friend. My buddies include Joe and Jill, Maggie Hassan, Gabby Giffords, Liz Mathis, Mark Kelly, Val Demings and Raphael Warnock.

The internet works. One candidate in a long-shot race against conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene quickly raised over $9 million from strangers. A borrowed list, a candidate virtually no one knew, and money flowed in from people who have no special interest to promote. The appeal for clean dollars goes to thousands in the time it takes to punch a keyboard. But online giving still runs second.

In our small state, money from outside will reach new heights. This year the Senate race may see age overcome money. Since his last campaign, Sen. Chuck Grassley has raised over $6 million, but a 2021 Des Moines Register poll found a majority of Republicans hoped he wouldn’t run.

He is running, of course, and big, dark money will find him. Many Republicans will vote for him. But my $100 and Mike Franken may turn things around.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.