Senate seats, if ‘sold,’ prove tough to keep

U.S. Senate seats can be bought for the right price, perhaps, but sticking around to become an elder statesman in the world’s most exclusive club is a whole different matter.

“A lot of them just don’t bring a very attractive portfolio to the table,” says Jennifer A. Steen, a politics professor at Boston College who has studied the so-called “self-funders.”

“If what they’re saying isn’t really compelling, and they don’t have a base of strong supporters,” she says of the multimillionaire senators trying to hold onto their seats, “it can be really tough.”

Although the Senate long has been a playpen for the super-rich, self-funding candidates came into high demand — especially for Democrats — in recent years.

Of more than a dozen Senate races since 1998 featuring candidates who bankrolled their own campaigns, however, only two such candidates are senators who expect to be in office after next year. And one of them — Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state — is a top Republican target in next year’s elections.

The only other recent self-funding senator who even hopes to be in the chamber after next year is Sen. Herb Kohl, Wisconsin Democrat and department store magnate, who sank nearly $5 million into his 2000 re-election bid. Mr. Kohl spent nearly $7 million of his own money in each of two previous campaigns, and appears invulnerable with an approval rating of 70 percent.

But most recent self-funders don’t fare so well.

Sen. Mark Dayton, Minnesota Democrat and heir to another department store chain, announced this month that he won’t seek re-election next year after one poll showed his approval rating had dropped to 43 percent.

“I do not believe that I am the best candidate to lead the [Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party] to victory next year,” Mr. Dayton told reporters. “Everything I have worked for and everything I believe in depend upon this Senate seat’s remaining in the Democratic caucus in 2007.”

After spending $12 million of his fortune to beat an incumbent in 2000, Mr. Dayton not only saw his popularity fall, but also had a hard time raising money from others. With $177,000 in his campaign coffers at the end of last year and a nationwide fund-raising tour attracting little of the $15 million he said he would need to win, Mr. Dayton bailed.

“I cannot stand to do the constant fund raising necessary to wage a successful campaign, and I cannot be an effective senator while also being a nearly full-time candidate,” he said.

Sen. Jon Corzine, New Jersey Democrat, broke all records for self-funding when he spent $60 million of his investment-banking fortune in his 2000 race. He now plans to run this fall for the governorship of New Jersey.

Mr. Corzine enjoys a comfortable approval rating among New Jersey voters, but some Democrats privately blame him for the party’s net loss of four Senate seats last year while he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A Corzine spokesman declined several opportunities to comment for this article.

One of the most famous of the multimillionaire senators, lawyer and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards, sank more than $6 million of his personal-injury winnings into his 1998 race for a seat from North Carolina. Before his first term had expired, Mr. Edwards pursued his presidential ambitions and decided not to seek re-election.

Self-funders in the Senate are mainstays of both parties.

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