With candidates zipping around the country at record paces to reach as wide an audience as possible, there is an assumption that the costs associated with these events in every town are fully covered. That assumption, however, would be wrong.
There are costs associated with these types of events that often times wouldn’t even cross the mind of somebody attending the event or a casual observer who hears about it in the news. Many of these costs are in regards to security and providing overtime for police officers, some of whom spend up to eight hours of overtime working the events. The assumption is that the local government cover these costs, but local governments are often times too cash strapped to provide increases in pay for police officers, firefighters and EMTs, let alone provide overtime.
When it comes to Marshalltown, Iowa, many candidates dating back over two decades have taken months to reimburse the local police department, some have never done so. It is ironic that so many candidates continue to heap praise on police officers all over this country, but refuse to use seemingly endless campaign cash in some cases to reimburse those officers who protect the candidates as well as the crowds.
Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper has been working these events for 23 years in the state of Iowa. In those 23 years, Tupper said that only one candidate called beforehand and asked for the bill upfront, paying in its entirety before ever taking the stage. That candidate is Senator Bernie Sanders.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that this is the case. Senator Sanders is the only candidate in the field who was a mayor of a city, which gives him first hand experience into the plight of local law enforcement and the inability of many cities to provide adequate pay. When running for mayor of Burlington in 1981, Sanders faced off against an incumbent Democrat who was in power for a decade, as well as a Republican candidate looking to change that. One of the biggest keys to Sanders razor thin 10 vote victory was his guarantee to negotiate in good faith with the local police union.
The union threw their support behind Sanders, knowing that if he lost they would be on the short end of negotiations with whoever became mayor. Ten years later, they were still supporting Bernie Sanders.
Donald Trump recently reimbursed local Iowa police departments for their costs, making Secretary Clinton the only candidate yet to do so. In fact, Chief Tupper has now sent two formal letters to the Clinton campaign asking for the owed reimbursements of less than $2,500. I don’t intend on being speculative, but for a campaign that has raised upwards of $200 million, there aren’t very many excuses for not reimbursing local law enforcement who protect and help facilitate your events.
Candidates have long been throwing praise in support behind professions that are important and make up large parts of the electorate. Teachers, police officer, and firefighters, just to name a few. It’s comforting to know that there is a candidate out there who helps and supports those people when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Featured Image Via Michael Vadon on Flickr, under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License
