Congressman Brad Wenstrup's Opinions on Dialing for Dollars

Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R)- 2nd District    

In order to raise enough money for the campaign trail, members of Congress must call donors anywhere from 25 to 30 hours a week. On an episode of “60 Minutes”, Florida Representative David Jolly introduced a bill to ban federal-elected officials from dialing for dollars called the Stop Act.

Congressman of the 2^nd District in Ohio, Brad Wenstrup (R), had an opinion about the dialing for dollars and the Stop Act.

When doing a radio interview on 55KRC, Wenstrup was asked about the amount of time these members of Congress spend per day and per week calling people for fund money.

“Well that’s not my world, that’s for sure,” Wenstrup said. “I might spend two hours a month making phone calls.”

Still from "60 Minutes" episode

Wenstrup explains that instead of calling these donors for money, he actually uses the time to hear from the people and get their opinions.

“I like to use that as a tool actually because I like to hear from a lot of constituents and what’s on their mind; how the government usually is not working well for them,” he said.

Although the Congressman did not completely object to the amount of time spent dialing for dollars, he says the amount of time seems practically unmanageable.

“5 hours a day is virtually impossible, I sit on 3 committees and 6 sub-committees,” Wenstrup said. “4 or 5 hours a day is impossible, but I appreciate the intent.”

The Congressman explains how dialing for dollars does not only effect members of Congress and the funds for their campaigns, but it also has effects on citizens.

“Well anecdotal stories, true stories if you will, that people are telling you make an impact on you when you want to be able to say ‘Look, do you realize the consequences of what’s taking place here in Washington and what it’s doing to the people in the community?’” he said.

Wenstrup was questioned about when he first came into office and if he was given instructions and expectations to make these phone calls, regardless of the lack of time on his schedule.

“What I see, in some way there’s an effort to be a team and help those who are having tough races, but no one has ever dictated to me anything that I had to do as far as my campaigning, that’s up to me,” Wenstrup said.

This does not mean the Congressman doesn’t have anyone calling to campaign for him.

“We have people who work on the campaign side and do a lot of that and so the time I spend on it is very minimal because I just don’t have that much time,” he said.

With all of this being said, Congressman Wenstrup’s office did not provide a finite answer on whether or not he approves or opposes the Stop Act. However, he did make it known that a large portion of his time is not spent dialing for dollars.

Listen to the interview below:

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Megan Deierling-Reporter

The fact that members of Congress are dialing for dollars makes me wonder if they really care about the people when they campaign or if they see people as dollar amounts. It also has me speculating what other things members of Congress do to raise money and how much real time they spend working for the people.