In politics, it is also about the name. A politician's name identification. It is their most important asset. However, instead of protecting their name, most politicians are intent on using and promoting their name. It is the primary currency for any politician.
Name ID is huge for any politician. The reality is that, beyond presidential general elections, a great number of voters do not have a deep understanding of who is running and what the candidates stand for.
Therefore, it is a huge advantage when a voter goes into the voting booth and sees a name that they are familiar with. This is why incumbents are so hard to beat in Congressional races.
Here are the incumbent re-election percentages between 1964-2016 in the U.S. House of Representatives. 98% of incumbents won re-election in the general election in 2016.
The substantial "asset value" that a politician has in his or her name is also the reason why so many politicians have a hard time stepping away. They know they have an "asset" and they want to use it. It really becomes a question of "use it or lose it."
This is very apparent in the Ohio gubernatorial primaries for Governor that will be decided on Tuesday.
Mike DeWine is running for the Republican nomination for Governor. DeWine is 71 years of age and was elected to his first political office (Ohio State Senate) in 1980. He subsequently was a U.S. Congressman, Ohio Lt. Governor and a U.S. Senator for Ohio for 12 years. He was defeated in 2006 by Democrat Sherrod Brown in his bid for a third U.S. Senate term but then ran for Attorney
General of Ohio which he won in 2010. After serving two terms, he now wants to be Governor when most people would be selecting their retirement home.
His name ID seems to be burning a hole in his pocket.
DeWine is running against the current Lt. Governor, Mary Taylor, who is 52 years of age. She also wants to take advantage of her name ID. She was first elected to the Ohio House in 2003 where she served two terms and then on to Ohio State Auditor for one term before her two terms as John Kasich's running mate as Lt. Governor.
Similarly, Dennis Kucinich is running for the Democrat nomination to Governor. That name should be familiar to a lot of you even if you are not from Ohio from his two Presidential runs.
Kucinich will be 72 years of age by election day in November. Kucinich was first elected to the Cleveland City Council at the age of 23 (almost 50 years ago!). He became Mayor of Cleveland at the age of 31 in what turned out to be a tumultuous two year term. He subsequently was elected to the Ohio State Senate and then the U.S. Congress where he served for 16 years. He ran for the Democrat nomination for President in both 2004 and 2008.
His name ID is also burning a hole in his pocket.
Kucinich is running against Richard Cordray (age 59) who was first elected to political office in 1991. He served in the Ohio House and later was Ohio's State Treasurer and Attorney General. He was defeated for re-election in 2010 by DeWine and subsequently was appointed by President Obama to be the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
When I first got involved in political consulting in the early 1980's a wise politico told me this is the way the game works. Very few politicians walk away without trying to spend all of their name ID. Most will keep trying to climb the ladder using their name ID currency as far as it will take them. For many of them, they don't have much going for them except for that name ID. It is bigger than any amount of money they have in the bank or any ability they have to govern or lead.
As a result, the deck is largely stacked against younger politicians who want to get in the game. This is particularly true for statewide races. Money and old-fashioned door to door campaigning can overcome name ID in a district, city or county race but it is hard to overcome name ID in a statewide election. Door to door is of limited utility and the money required to overcome a statewide name ID disadvantage is astronomical.
The same is true in Presidential elections.
Who are the names we hear the most right now for the Democrats in 2020?
Hillary Clinton (age 70) seems to be trying very hard to keep her name in circulation.
Bernie Sanders (age 76) built a lot of name ID in 2016. Do you think he wants to leave that on the table in 2020?
The same holds true for Joe Biden ( age 75) and Elizabeth Warren (age 69).
They all know they have name ID and they are not eager to let it go unspent even if they should be more concerned about their retirement house rather than The White House.
It is the way of politics.
It's all in the name.
And not many politicians are willing to forsake the opportunity to spend it all while they can, no matter what their age.
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