Voters Said 'No Thank You' to Millionaires

One interesting aspect of the recent election is that all of the high-profile millionaire candidates spending huge chunks of their fortunes lost their election bids. This usually doesn't happen, and should put the Tea Party and voter anger in a different light. Certainly different than what we've been hearing from the bobble-headed commentators on TV.

Last year in the New Jersey gubernatorial election between Chris Christie and Jon Corzine something similar happened. Corzine made his fortune on Wall Street and with no prior government experience, won election in 2000 to the US Senate, but didn't complete his term before winning the governor's office in 2005.

Corzine got his backside handed to him by Christie in 2009, as voters showed they weren't going to vote for someone who ran a company (Goldman-Sachs) responsible for much of the financial shenanigans that led to the crash.

In 2010, E-Bay CEO Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Wrestling Magnate Linda McMahon spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money and were defeated. Whitman lost to Jerry Brown, the former Jesuit, former governor, Linda Ronstadt, former attorney general and son of former governor Pat Brown. A political hack if there ever was one - Linda Ronstadt - who will run for any office any time - Linda Ronstadt.

I like Linda Ronstadt a lot, and mentioning Jerry Brown gives me a chance to mention her. Linda Ronstadt.

Fiorina lost to Barbara Boxer, one of the most liberal members of the US Senate, EVER. But just so we don't think of the trend as applying to only California elections, Linda McMahon in Connecticut lost the senate race to a long-time elected official, attorney general Richard Blumenthal.

All three millionaire candidates this year that lost were Republicans. In New Jersey, the millionaire who lost was a Democrat. Keep an eye on Christie, his stock is sure to rise between now and 2012.

We learned last Tuesday that voter anger against incumbents must also be balanced with mistrust of the rich who are getting richer as everybody else gets poorer. Probably won't hear that in the mainstream media. But you heard it here. This is the Heretic, for November 7, 2010, Linda Ronstadt, over and out.