Scrap the pledge talk

If in the future political candidates skip the chapter on the “people’s pledge” in the book of campaign gimmicks, well, there will be no salty tears falling in this space.

The deal that Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown struck in 2012 worked well for that race. The candidates had their own reasons for working out an agreement to limit outside spending (for which TV viewers around here were grateful). Control of the U.S. Senate hung in the balance, and the shared goal was to limit the influence of deep-pocketed outside groups in that election.

But since then the pledge has become just another meaningless campaign stunt — an effort by candidates in everything from city council to congressional races to gain an inch of traction.

On the one hand you have well-funded establishmenttypes like Ed Mar key, who called on his little-known Republican opponent in the 2013 U.S. Senate race to commit to the pledge — effectively demanding that Gabriel Gomez unilaterally disarm. Gomez sensibly declined.

On the opposite end are unknown challengers with little in the bank and little to lose. They may see a demand for the people’s pledge as an easy public relations score.

The latest local candidate to call for the pledge is Setti Warren, the mayor of Newton, who is considering a run for governor and cited the scourge of “dark money” in political campaigns.

Meanwhile Warren, who’s up for re-election next year, has indicated she’d be interested in signing another pledge. She can certainly afford to, given that she’s sitting on $5 million in campaign funds — more than all but one other senator up for re-election next year. (And if she unloads a few more of those “Nevertheless, she persisted” T-shirts, well, who knows how much she can rake in.)

If candidates want to negotiate a deal to limit outside spending, then more power to them. But it’s not a prerequisite, and a reluctance to sign such a pledge is not a sign of bad faith.