The list of wealthy candidates who haven’t made it is much longer. In 2010, Republican Meg Whitman spent $175 million in the California gubernatorial election. She lost. By a lot. Connecticut Senate candidate — and former executive at World Wrestling Entertainment — Linda McMahon spent nearly $49 million while losing her 2010 race. She has since moved on to be a mega-donor in her spare time.
Last year, a political scientist wrote at the New York Times, “in 2012 only four of the top 12 self-funders won House elections. And only one of 12 won Senate elections. In most cases, the winners came from safe seats; the losers had little chance anyway.” The Center for Responsive Politics reported that 14.5 percent of self-funded congressional candidates have won their races since 2002. The National Institute of Money in State Politics found that 6,171 of the more than 75,000 candidates who ran for state office from 2002 to 2009 provided the bulk of their campaign’s funding. Only 668 of them won.
In Senate races, the only other self-funder who has found luck this year is Georgia businessman David Perdue, who just bested his Republican opponent, Rep. Jack Kingston, in a primary runoff last week. Perdue donated about $3.2 million to his campaign, and will face a difficult race against Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn in the fall.
via Attention rich people: You still can’t buy elected office (for yourself). – The Washington Post.
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