The 2008 presidential campaign is already under way, and the starting gun "made the unmistakable sound of a cash register," says The Arizona Republic.
According to USA Today, the two candidates who wind up carrying the major party standards toward November 2008 will likely raise $500 million each. That means a cool billion between the two of them. The celebrity candidates like Clinton and McCain should plan on raising $100 million by the end of 2007, says Michael Toner, chairman of the Federal Election Commission. For the smaller donkeys and elephants in the pack, it will take at least $10 million by March just to remain respectable in the race.
And that's just the presidential campaigns - the myriad of Senate and House races will also rake in big bucks.
But the latest data from the 2006 congressional elections elections shows that more money doesn't always add up to more votes.
The New York Times reports:
The latest campaign finance reports filed late Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by the national parties’ House campaign committees show that both spent freely in the run-up and immediate aftermath to the Nov. 7 elections. The Democrats, who gained control of the House by taking over 29 Republican-held seats while losing none of their own, clearly got more bang for their bucks.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) reported spending $37.5 million between Oct. 19, 19 days before Election Day, and Nov. 27, 20 days after. The Democratic Congressional Congressional Committee (DCCC) spent $43.8 million during the same period.
Most of both committees’ money paid for “independent expenditures,” most of which was used to attack the opposition party’s nominees.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that U.S. Sen. George Allen spent twice as much money as did Democrat Jim Webb, who defeated Allen. Allen spent about $16 million compared to Webb's $8 million. Independent expenditures by organizations outside of the campaigns reflected the gap, spending more than $11 million on the Allen/Webb race, with much of that money coming from the Democratic Senatorial Congressional Campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. According to the FEC, Allen drew more than $7.1 million from such groups while Webb attracted more than $3.8 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The truth is, they all spend more time raising money for the next election cycle than they spend actually working on the business voters sent them to Washington to deal with. Maybe public financing would make them more accountable to those voters than to the current crop of campaign financiers.
Posted by: just 6 dollars | January 8, 2007 1:45 PM | Permalink to Comment