1912 - Wilson vs. Taft
Wilson campaigns in 1912; Courtesy of the Library of Congress
During the Taft administration, Congress passed laws setting spending limits for U.S. Senate and House campaigns (later struck down by a federal court) and requiring disclosure of contributions for those races. Oddly, legislators have neglected to set similar rules for presidential campaigns.
Nevertheless, the influence of big money in elections has become such a glaring problem that even the Republican Party, which has led the way in raising money from corporate America, feels compelled to call in its party platform for “such additional legislation as may be necessary more effectively to prohibit corporations from contributing funds, directly or indirectly, to campaigns.” The GOP nominates incumbent President Taft, who remains conflicted about accepting corporate largess, for a second term.
The Democrats, meanwhile, nominate New Jersey governor and former Princeton University president Woodrow Wilson, who tries — as previous nominee William Jennings Bryan had —to make campaign finance an issue. Wilson calls for the public disclosure of campaign contributions and makes a point of publicly turning down contributions from several business moguls. Wilson tries instead to solicit a large number of small contributions from ordinary citizens. He manages to attract 88,000 donations of $100 or less, amounting to $318,910. Unfortunately, that’s nowhere near enough to compete with the $1.8 million raised by the Republicans, and in the end, Wilson must rely on large donors, such as real estate magnate Henry Morgenthau, to amass his $1.1 million campaign treasury.
Taft’s slight financial advantage over Wilson is negated by Teddy Roosevelt, his estranged former mentor, who decides to mount a third-party candidacy. For his part, Roosevelt relies almost entirely on a handful of wealthy donors, including Frank A. Munsey, the owner of the New York Press and other newspapers, and George W. Perkins, a former partner in J.P. Morgan and Company. (The latter, it is rumored, tries to get each of the directors of U.S. Steel to donate $5,000 to Roosevelt’s cause.)
In November, Wilson takes just 41.8 percent of the popular vote but wins 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt is second with 27.4 percent and 88 electoral votes, while the incumbent, Taft, finishes third with 23.2 percent and just eight electoral votes. A fourth candidate, socialist Eugene V. Debs, manages to draw 6 percent of the popular vote — an impressive showing, considering that his campaign raised just $66,000, about a third of it from party members who agreed to donate one day’s pay to the effort.
SOURCES: Anthony Corrado, “Money and Politics: A History of Federal Campaign Finance Law,” in The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press), 2005; Gil Troy, “Money and Politics: The Oldest Connection,” The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 1997; Alexander Heard, The Costs of Democracy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 1960; H.C.F. Bell, Woodrow Wilson and the People (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company), 1945; Bradley A. Smith, “Campaign Finance Regulation: Faulty Assumptions and Undemocratic Consequences,” in Political Money: Deregulating American Politics (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press), 2000; Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace), 1931; John A. Garaty, Right-Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins (New York: Harper & Brothers), 1960; “1912 Presidential Election Results,” David Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; H. Wayne Morgan, “Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President,” (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press), 1973.
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