Do Incumbents Have Unfair Advantage?

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 21, 2004 -- -- What does it take to win, or more importantly, keep a seat in the House of Representatives?

The congressional race in southeast Pittsburgh is a good case study.The story is familiar, since money is the mother's milk of politics.

Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a doctor, is a first-time incumbent from the 18th District of Pennsylvania campaigning to keep his seat in the House.

Democrat Mark Boles, also a doctor, is a first-time challenger seeking to unseat Murphy.

To date, it has been a civil race, without slashing attacks from either candidate, a rarity in contemporary American politics. Both men, who once worked at the same hospital, have that "I care for people" manner of most doctors.

"I mean, he's a good guy," Murphy said of Boles. "I knew him at Mercy Hospital, we worked together."

Said Boles: "It almost makes it difficult because, as I am learning about politics, you want to tell people to fire him and hire me."

But the difference between these two men is the money they need to run an effective campaign.

Murphy has more than enough funding to produce the all-important television commercials to publicize his campaign.

"It costs money to buy TV time from your stations," he said. "I am going to buy a commercial on one TV show that costs me $7,800 for 30 seconds. What do I do about that?"

But Boles hasn't even got money for television ads.

"I can tell you what I've got, and I would just say loosely -- not a lot," he said, laughing.

When running for the House of Representatives, in no matter what part of the country, the incumbent almost always has more money.

Incumbents have so much more money than their challengers that by the end of the pre-campaign reform, free-spending 1990s, 98 percent of the incumbents in Congress were being reelected. They have political action committees in Washington, and lobbyists who provide money.

In Murphy's case, the incumbent Bush administration has helped his fund raising as well.

"There hasn't been anything direct with the president, but the vice president did a fund-raiser," he said.

Murphy estimated that the event raised $150,000.