November 4, 2014: election day... we're all hearing the constant advertisements and having our mailboxes full of election mailers. Fun, fun!
And today is the day. Whatever your political affiliation, this is the day you can make your voice heard. What an exciting time during the year. With the bombardment of information about this candidate and that policy, we started to analyze the costs associated with this process. Opensecrets.org is a nonpartisan organization that evaluates just that. And the findings are pretty eyeopening.
In 2012, the average house winner spent $1,567,379 and the average Senate winner spent $11,474,362. In comparison, the average loser spent $540,022 and $7,434,819, respectively.Hmm, Interesting, right?
In 2014 alone, the total activity for all house candidates was $324,688,080 from PACs and $526,108,686 from individuals. The Senatorial races were close behind with $87,963,650 and $391,458,352 from individuals. Pretty incredible.
The chart below lists the total costs of US Elections from 1998-2014. Isn't it amazing that these numbers are listed in the billions?
What do you think about the amount spent on political campaigns? Do you contribute to campaigns? What would you want to change about the process?