Money Money Money
$469 million, That's what been spent by candidates vying to be our next President, and that's just the money spent by the also-rans. The losers have spent nearly a half billion dollars and the only people who don't see a problem with this are the people blowing through the cash. Total in all the candidates and it sits at $889M, and that's just through Feb.
Campaign money comes from two sources generally, the campaign committee fund and pacs/superpacs and trust me , they don't want the general public to understand how these work. There are four different kinds of pacs, connected, non-connected, leadership and super, each with their own set of rules that are rarely followed b/c no one really gives a shit. When the rich want to influence an election they'll find the ways to get it done. A superpac is supposed to be independent of a candidate it's usually people hired by the campaign to run it. While most pac donations must say who the money comes from there are also people called bundlers who can take dark money and infuse it into the campaign.
In the losers column Jeb Bush led the way by a large margin, $137M in eight months of campaigning or $17M a month just to come up a little short. Just kidding, that's what he spent to get his ass handed to him. Jebs largest corporate donor (remember, corporations are people. They just don't have the same restrictions placed on them that "real" people do.) was CV Starr, a global insurance/investment company that donated $10M (or wasted, however you want to look at it) The next highest was MBF Healthcare Products who donated $3.1M. Nineteen other companies also gave in excess of a million dollars. He got over $4M from the Fla. Republican party and even $500,000 from our hometown boy Les Wexner. Curiously, Abigail Wexner gave $250,000 to John Kasich which makes one wonder if the words "at least my guy is still in the race" have been spoken at their dinner table.
Marco Rubio spent $98M in his failed bid but it wasn't enough. He even raised $25M in Feb. from just 11 donors to try and save his campaign. Ten million came from two different sources, the ex-president of AIG Hank Greenburg (you remember them, we had to bail them out) and poultry magnate Ronald Cameron, who I'm sure would categorize himself as a "job creator" although in reality it's the people who eat chicken wings that actually create the jobs. (Cameron also gave $3M to Mike Huckabees failed campaign.) Two hedge fund managers gave him $2.5 each and the rest were all million dollar donors. What did their $25M get them? An update on Donald Trumps hands and a high school dick joke.
Ben Carson blew through $73M but as I've already discussed, he spent all his money on raising more money just so he could sell his donor list to the highest bidder. What is interesting though is some of his top donors. The US Army, Air Force and Navy were major contributors as were Coca-Cola and the US postal service, It's quite possible these donors are on all donor lists but my source only lists the top donors and these contributions were probably too small to make the other candidates lists. On average these 5 donors only gave about $25,000 per.
Scott Walker spent the next highest amount at $32.5M. Remember him? He was the republican golden boy for all of 70 days. $32M in 70 days, I'm sure Lamar Odom is impressed. The next time you hear a Chicago Cubs fan bemoaning the fact that they haven't won a World Series in like forever be sure to remind them of the $4.9M they wasted on the Walker campaign.
Chris Christie spent $31M thanks to six figure donations from Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and the PGA tour. (I never say never but I'm pretty confident that'll be the only time you'll ever see Chris Christie and PGA tour in the same sentence.) But it was probably worth it to them just to see him take Rubio down in the debate. His only true accomplishment in the campaign.
The list goes on, Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul spent $23M and $20M respectively. Rick Perry $17M. Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee $10M each. Martin O'Malley was able blow through $7M in his short time. Jendal $5M, and Santorum $2.5M. Even George Pataki was able to spend $2.M and I'm not sure if he even left his house.
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What would that $469M buy? Every major road construction project in central Ohio. The widening at I-71 in Grove City ($90M), the northside fix at I-270 and Rt.315 ($34M) and the I-270 and Rt.161 project in Dublin ($71M). In Carroll the new Rt.33 interchange ($58M) and the new interchange at Rt.16 and Cherry Valley Rd. ($31) in Newark. The three bridge replacement projects around town and all the repaving projects scheduled this summer. And we'd still have enough left over to replace all the lead pipes in Flint Mi. three times over.
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I'll look at the other candidates after March expenditures come in a week or two.
Campaign money comes from two sources generally, the campaign committee fund and pacs/superpacs and trust me , they don't want the general public to understand how these work. There are four different kinds of pacs, connected, non-connected, leadership and super, each with their own set of rules that are rarely followed b/c no one really gives a shit. When the rich want to influence an election they'll find the ways to get it done. A superpac is supposed to be independent of a candidate it's usually people hired by the campaign to run it. While most pac donations must say who the money comes from there are also people called bundlers who can take dark money and infuse it into the campaign.
In the losers column Jeb Bush led the way by a large margin, $137M in eight months of campaigning or $17M a month just to come up a little short. Just kidding, that's what he spent to get his ass handed to him. Jebs largest corporate donor (remember, corporations are people. They just don't have the same restrictions placed on them that "real" people do.) was CV Starr, a global insurance/investment company that donated $10M (or wasted, however you want to look at it) The next highest was MBF Healthcare Products who donated $3.1M. Nineteen other companies also gave in excess of a million dollars. He got over $4M from the Fla. Republican party and even $500,000 from our hometown boy Les Wexner. Curiously, Abigail Wexner gave $250,000 to John Kasich which makes one wonder if the words "at least my guy is still in the race" have been spoken at their dinner table.
Marco Rubio spent $98M in his failed bid but it wasn't enough. He even raised $25M in Feb. from just 11 donors to try and save his campaign. Ten million came from two different sources, the ex-president of AIG Hank Greenburg (you remember them, we had to bail them out) and poultry magnate Ronald Cameron, who I'm sure would categorize himself as a "job creator" although in reality it's the people who eat chicken wings that actually create the jobs. (Cameron also gave $3M to Mike Huckabees failed campaign.) Two hedge fund managers gave him $2.5 each and the rest were all million dollar donors. What did their $25M get them? An update on Donald Trumps hands and a high school dick joke.
Ben Carson blew through $73M but as I've already discussed, he spent all his money on raising more money just so he could sell his donor list to the highest bidder. What is interesting though is some of his top donors. The US Army, Air Force and Navy were major contributors as were Coca-Cola and the US postal service, It's quite possible these donors are on all donor lists but my source only lists the top donors and these contributions were probably too small to make the other candidates lists. On average these 5 donors only gave about $25,000 per.
Scott Walker spent the next highest amount at $32.5M. Remember him? He was the republican golden boy for all of 70 days. $32M in 70 days, I'm sure Lamar Odom is impressed. The next time you hear a Chicago Cubs fan bemoaning the fact that they haven't won a World Series in like forever be sure to remind them of the $4.9M they wasted on the Walker campaign.
Chris Christie spent $31M thanks to six figure donations from Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and the PGA tour. (I never say never but I'm pretty confident that'll be the only time you'll ever see Chris Christie and PGA tour in the same sentence.) But it was probably worth it to them just to see him take Rubio down in the debate. His only true accomplishment in the campaign.
The list goes on, Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul spent $23M and $20M respectively. Rick Perry $17M. Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee $10M each. Martin O'Malley was able blow through $7M in his short time. Jendal $5M, and Santorum $2.5M. Even George Pataki was able to spend $2.M and I'm not sure if he even left his house.
.
What would that $469M buy? Every major road construction project in central Ohio. The widening at I-71 in Grove City ($90M), the northside fix at I-270 and Rt.315 ($34M) and the I-270 and Rt.161 project in Dublin ($71M). In Carroll the new Rt.33 interchange ($58M) and the new interchange at Rt.16 and Cherry Valley Rd. ($31) in Newark. The three bridge replacement projects around town and all the repaving projects scheduled this summer. And we'd still have enough left over to replace all the lead pipes in Flint Mi. three times over.
.
I'll look at the other candidates after March expenditures come in a week or two.
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