Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008 - (Page 34)

ping um J O n a crisp autumn morning, hundreds of people lined up for hours to meet former President Bill Clinton at a book signing. Some folks wore “Hil “Hillary for President” T-shirts. Others debated his wife’ wife’s platform while Clinton worked the room. Ju Just your typical campaign whistle stop, except for the fact that this was in London, land of Big Be Ben and ﬁsh & chips. “I’m working hard for y’all,” Clinton told a g group of American visitors who thanked him for reaching out to U.S. citizens abroad. Clinton isn’t alone. Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thom Thompson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Michelle Obama, mpso wife of Bara Obama, have all hopped the pond since last Barack March. the For th ﬁrst time, presidential candidates and their famihe personally courting American expatriates, one of the lies are p largely last large untapped sources of votes and dollars. Most media reports have so far focused on the money raised—which is not insigniﬁcant. With a population of raised— than more th 50,000 well-heeled Americans, London is like a overseas ATM for our campaigns. More than half of the big over money donated by expats to U.S. presidential candidates in the ﬁrst three quarters of 2007 came from Americans residthe ing in th British capital. total from all Americans living abroad was $682,726, The t surpassing surpassin the $500,000 raised during the entire 2000 election season. At this rate, overseas giving will easily break the $900,000 record set in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And the actual ﬁgures are likely to be much higher due to inconsistent record-keeping and the fact that some American expats use their permanent U.S. address as their home of record when donating. (These ﬁgures also do not include cash raised from the most recent Obama and Clinton fundraisers in London, which occurred in the beginning of the fourth quarter.) “Given the expense of American presidential elections, every fundraising opportunity is important. You’ve got to take advantage of it,” Giuliani told reporters at his Sept. 23 fundraiser in London. Tickets to the packed event ranged from $1,000 to $2,300, the maximum amount allowed under campaign ﬁnancing laws. Not a bad night’s work. But experts like Allan Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University, think expat money isn’t necessarily the biggest prize. All those overseas votes could have a more critical impact on the election. Jackpot: Reasons to Woo the Expats Between four million and seven million Americans live abroad, depending on who’s counting—the numbers differ radically because tallying this far-ﬂung group is like herding cats. Even at the lowball ﬁgure, that’s potentially more voters than Iowa, New Hampshire and Wyoming combined. Plus, expatriate voters tend to be wealthier, more educated and more politically savvy than their stateside counterparts, with cash to spare, experts say. “Expatriates represent a sizeable group of potential voters that no campaign should ignore,” says Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., co-chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. He and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., formed the group in February 2007 to promote the interests of American expats in Washington. Democrats have an extra reason to court those voters. For the ﬁrst time since 1992, the party will hold a global primary in February to select 22 delegates, each of whom will get half a vote at the Democratic National Convention. It’s still the general election, though, that has the parties scrambling for expat support. “We’ve seen two presidential elections turn on a very small number of votes: 537 votes in Florida in 2000 and just over 100,000 votes in Ohio in 2004. One or two key states with a potentially large expat vote … could conceivably turn a close election,” says Lichtman. Partisans on both sides have taken notice. Republicans Abroad and Democrats Abroad—independent organizations that work to advance their parties’ message and candidates to American expats—are galvanizing for 2008, recruiting new members and helping them register to vote. “I think candidates now really understand that a vote abroad is just as important as a vote from anywhere in the U.S.,” says Christine Schon Marques, chairwoman of Democrats Abroad, which has launched chapters in Turkey, Guatemala, India and Russia in just the past 12 months. Those new chapters, she believes, are fueled by dissatisfaction with President Bush’s foreign policy and the ongoing Iraq war. She says more and more expats are switching sides or becoming politically active for the ﬁrst time. W h y t h e ’ 0 8 H o p e f u l s a re C o u r t i n g 34 Politics January 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008

Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008 Contents GOP Retirement Woes Getting Girls to Think Politics Movers & Shakers: Karen Hanretty If I Had It To Do Over: Mike McCurry Eve Fairbanks Column Cover Story: Mike Huckabee Hopping the Pond GOP: The Next Generation 5 “Truths” About Women Voters Reds & Blues: States in the Spotlight High Road/Campaign Doc Bookshelf Dick Morris Column John Zogby Column Techbytes Playbook Coming & Going: Who's Where Campaign Sign-ups Marketplace Quips & Slips

Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.