Last week when I shared my experience of trying to determine if my economic status put me in the middle class, the most meaningful discovery was actually about the really rich folks.

The information, if you didn’t read the article, came from sociologists’ studies and basically included economics (income), social standing (profession) and education. The information I quoted came from Wikipedia (the online, free encyclopedia) and included studies from three periods of research.

The top one percent of Americans (called capitalist in one study, upper class in another and super rich in a third study) had extremely high income, included high-level executives, highrung politicians and a high percentage had graduated from or at least attended an Ivy League University.

Many super rich athletes achieve fame without graduating from college much less Ivy League schools.

But the thing that made this interesting wasn’t about athletes but our political process.

One television news program (Fox News, I believe) quoted an estimate that American politicians will spend ( a record) $3.7 billion (yes, billion) on this mid-term election. Some of the numbers they quoted estimated that over $1 billion has been spent on the primaries so far. Those numbers staggered me, or astounded me if you prefer, but the quote from the sociologists’ researchabout the very rich and politicians came together when I followed up on two candidates seeking positions on opposite sides of our nation.

Contrary to what Texans want us to believe, California, not Texas, is where things are done in a “really big way.” Whether it is the housing boom, movie blockbusters or record state deficits, California is not to be ignored.

They seem to be proud of how deeply in debt they go without total financial failure.

Almost everyone has heard of eBay. Almost everyone, except me, has bought or sold something on eBay. A lady named Meg Whitman is given credit for taking tiny eBay from 30 employees and sales of about $4 million in 1998 to its current size of about 15,000 employees and $8 billion plus in revenue today. (This information was also take from Wikipedia.) How Ms. Whitman succeeded in this astounding record is old news on Wall Street.

She now has a new world to conquer - she wants to be the next governor of the State of California. That is a very high-level, high profile position and the cost of a California political campaign is equally high.

Luckily Ms. Whitman (who is married and the mother of two sons) has a couple of things going for her.

Ms. Whitman (Margaret Cushing Whitman) is connected to the Ivy League schools of Princeton University (B.A.) and Harvard Business School (MBA).

And, not to be overlooked, her profile lists her as the fourth wealthiest woman in California with a net worth of $1.3 billion (yes, with a B). If high-rung politicians are going to fit into the top one percent and have an Ivy League background, and be wealthy, she would probably qualify.Incidentally, she is running as a Republican and has already won the primary and will oppose former Governor Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate in November. She will be financing most of her campaign from her own wealth according to reports. Isn’t it interesting that she came up through the business ranks to extreme wealth and now is seeking political office? What will rich folks think of next?

Another name that caught my attention is a man named Jeff Greene who wants to represent Florida in the U. S. Senate. His background is in real estate. He is one year older than Meg Whitman but there are some surprising similarities in their resumes. His undergraduate education was at Johns Hopkins University but his business education came at Harvard Business School.

His wealth is listed as inexcess of $1 billion and Forbes has him on their list of their top 400. He, too, is willing to spend his own wealth to win the Senate seat. However, if you read his resume, it is hard to see how someone with homes in several states can represent the poor middle class of Florida.

My question, of course, is how any Abe Lincolntype from lower class America can compete for a political position if a member of the super rich fraternity wants the seat for themselves. Are we ever going to get term-limits in our Congressional social circle?

We will never have representation of the lower middle class or the working class in America until we are willing to research the candidates on our own - meaning looking past the media blitz - and we actually seek candidates that are strong enough to withstand the pressures of the political parties. There is too much at stake for the power of the political parties to be ignored and too many of us are “bought” by the promises of a group of supposedly wise, well connected political insiders.

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Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at prtnews@ nwaonline.com. The opinions of the writer are his own, and are not necessarily those of The TIMES.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 07/28/2010