Will 2023-24 see a second blooming of “candidate Ficus”?
/By Rubashov
New Jersey is perhaps the worst place in America to run as an outsider. The state has that unique bar to outsiders known as “the party line” and a set of campaign finance laws that clearly favor establishment insiders. And those laws just got worse.
The state has a monolithic political establishment, with everyone drawing financial support from the same, largely transactional mix of special interests. Activist, true believers on the Democrat side have developed an ideological funding base, but the same can’t be said for Republicans.
This imbalance is why Democrats elect ideological candidates and Republicans do not. According to the latest ACU/CPAC scoring, Democrat voters have a 100% chance that the Democrat candidate they vote for will vote ideologically at least 90% of the time. Republican voters have only a 12% chance that the Republican candidate they vote for will vote ideologically at least 80% of the time.
As the primary season comes to a close in New Jersey, many are looking ahead to the 2023 legislative elections and the 2024 congressional elections with disgust at the lack of options offered them. Is this the environment in which “candidate Ficus” could make a comeback?
The Associated Press wrote about the “Ficus” phenomenon in 2000:
WASHINGTON (AP, 05-31-00) _ A team of candidates for Congress, deeply rooted in the environment, is trying to strike a blow against incumbency. But these challengers have to overcome unique disadvantages, such as an inability to speak and a need for watering.
Mobilized by satirist Michael Moore, political skeptics across the country have enlisted ficus plants to seek write-in votes for 24 congressional races.
“I’m doing this because the American people no longer show up to vote,” Moore said during a campaign appearance for the plant challenging Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. “The majority of people feel they have no choice.”
Moore is known for his 1989 documentary, “Roger & Me,” a dark comedy that assailed General Motors Corp. for closing its plant in Flint, Mich.
Ficus plants are being offered as candidates in 23 House races in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. One senator, Republican Craig Thomas of Wyoming, has vegetative competition.
…Campaign volunteers say they see the effort as a lark, but one with a message.
Sarah Cook of State College, Pa., said she was “really disappointed” when she learned Republican Rep. John Peterson of Pennsylvania had no Democratic opponent. So she and her husband Sean volunteered to host a ficus campaign.
“I think that people need to know that even when an incumbent is running unopposed, they do have a choice,″ said Cook, who works at Penn State University.
Lorne Wolfe, an associate professor of biology at Georgia Southern University, is helping run the ficus campaign against Republican Rep. Jack Kingston.
“As a plant biologist,” he said, “I was glad to see that (Moore) chose a plant to represent an alternative for the voting public.”
Jeff Seeman, who is running the ficus campaign in Ohio against Republican Rep. Ralph Regula, said his campaign theory is simple: “Why not?”
“I don’t think it would be better to have a potted plant represent us in Congress, but I certainly don’t see how it could be worse,” said Seeman, field representative for a national radio syndicator.
Thinking of offerings like State Senate candidate Parker Space, the above statement seems to be on point. And what about those elected politicians who refuse to show up to meet their constituents? A Ficus candidacy could make an important point, as the AP story shows:
Just like mainstream candidates, the ficus trees are making campaign stops. One in Pennsylvania traveled the district on a “listening tour.” In Georgia, the ficus candidate attended the grand opening of a greenhouse. A Texas ficus candidate sports a cowboy hat, while one in South Carolina posed outside Bob Jones University.
That’s right, Candidate Ficus will listen even if your elected representatives do not. A Ficus “listening tour” might be just the ticket in those districts where constituent outreach is a rarity or overly controlled. Of course, the New Jersey establishment never reacts well to nonconforming speech of any kind. They are not big on satire:
A ficus hopeful in New Jersey was denied a spot on the ballot when the state Board of Elections refused to accept its petition, which carried the slogan “Because a Potted Plant Can Do No Harm.”
The folks at Represent.Us used satire as well to make points about politics, political campaigns, and political consultants. Their “Honest” campaign of a few years ago, is spot on.
“Voters can’t make informed decisions unless they’re informed. If you asked any self-respecting constituent of George Santos, they’d tell you they wish they knew then what they know now.”
Micah Rasmussen
Director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
George Orwell
N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a rebuttal, clarification, an opposing opinion or any column for publication, please contact the Editor at info@JerseyConservative.org.
