Our Broken Democracy: Senator Heller Caves to Donor Pressure on Health Care

David Donnelly
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

What state is our democracy in these days? Look no further than Senator Dean Heller’s reversal on health care this week for your answer.

Following threats from some of his party’s biggest donors, Heller’s vote to move forward with the Republican health care plan is a sad example of how our broken political system puts the wants of a few wealthy donors ahead of everyone else.

Heller changed course despite the fact that thousands of people contacted him by phone, email, and in person to urge him to vote against the Republican health care plan. And he caved despite the support of his colleague, Governor Brian Sandoval, standing firm for the more than 200,000 Nevadans who gained insurance through Medicaid expansion.

Early on Heller seemed swayed by his constituents, saying, “It’s going to be very difficult to get me to a yes.” But soon big-money interests trumped protecting the progress made for Nevadans.

While millions nationwide would lose health coverage under the Republican health care plan, one elite constituency would benefit: wealthy political donors. The House health care bill that the Senate set out to consider would have given the biggest Republican donor, casino-magnate Sheldon Adelson, a $48 million annual tax cut, according to analysis by the Center for American Progress.

Some in Heller’s own party said they believed Heller would be “bought off” to support the Republican health care plan.

A couple of wealthy donors set out to make that a reality. At the request of the White House, Adelson and another casino billionaire Steve Wynn contacted Heller to pressure him into voting for the bill. Low and behold, Heller backtracked this week and became a deciding vote in favor of letting the health care debate proceed and voted to support the “skinny” repeal that ultimately failed.

This is a sad example of how our democracy works these days. Candidates pay attention to the opinions of a few wealthy contributors they rely on to stay in office instead of focusing on support from regular constituents back home.

Adelson, Wynn, and each of their wives gave the maximum contribution of $5,000 to Heller’s 2012 campaign while the Adelsons gave $6.6 million to the outside group Crossroads GPS that was directed to support Heller’s campaign. Wynn and his wife have already maxed out to Heller’s 2018 campaign, each contributing $5,400.

The Republican health care plan encapsulated the type of policymaking we too often see as a result of this big-money politics.

From the beginning the Senate health care plan was crafted in secret by thirteen Senators — all men — with input from corporate lobbyists and billionaire donors. Those thirteen Senators have relied heavily on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to fund their campaigns, receiving on average $214,000 between November 2010 and November 2016, according to analysis by MapLight.

That’s not democracy. It’s a subversion of it.

A recent AP-NORC poll found that with “rare unanimity” three-quarters of Americans agree people like them lack influence in Washington — and they are not wrong.

Our elected leaders shouldn’t have come so close to passing a piece of legislation that just 12 percent of Americans supported.

To fix our broken democracy, we must give regular constituents a voice by breaking the dependency on big-money donors and enabling candidates to fundraise with the support of regular people back home.

David Donnelly

Written by

President and CEO of Every Voice and Every Voice Action

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