Comments on: Some big money just didn’t work

by: mcb

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:13:15 +0000

There’s a big issue with the ROI calculations. No matter who would’ve won, the numbers look the same, just flipped. Doesn’t mean bad buys. They don’t look at the total a candidate got. So 1 PAC spends on one losing candidate, maybe a total of 1 million. Then 10 PAC’s could’ve spent 1 billion on winners. The fact they went together could’ve altered election results. But despite the much bigger dollars, the winner looks like the better buy, despite costing 1000 times as much. A real study would be more like the sun times, dollars per votes. But also need to look at the percentage of the campaign fund made up by the group. Just because you spend a million on one candidate, it could only be 2 or 3 percent of what they got.

by: mark walker

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:57:39 +0000

The star of election night IMO was Karl Rove, walking around with a little white board, explaining why Nate Silver and most pollsters, just didn’t understand Republican voters.

So Karl the “political genius” blew millions and millions of his clients’ money, and got paid by Fox News.

Rove, Bachman, Walsh, Cain, and Santorum should all fade away.

The Edelmans, Trumps, Kochs and Bradleys of the world will never admit personal error, and will keep trying to buy us.

by: D.P. Gumby

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:51:42 +0000

The real ROI is in all the states where Repubs controlled state legislatures, like Indiana w/a Repub veto proof and Wisc Repub winning back State Sen. Repub now control more Govs. than in history. This will have far more impact for future.

by: Eileen left

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:46:07 +0000

Rich guys don’t walk precincts working men and women do. Rich guys don’t volunteer to work in campaigns working men and women do. It just goes to show you that “money can’t buy you love”.

by: PublicServant

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:24:54 +0000

Plan B is just buy the Dems, guys…

by: ZC

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:08:32 +0000

I’ve always said that the first step to reforming money in politics was to beat these outside spending groups silly.

At the end of the day laws only go so far, you have to affect incentives. If the deep pockets get convinced that they’re pigeons and all they’re doing is buying Rove summer houses, then we’ll see some decline in the amount of money spent. 2012 was a good start in that regard.

by: The Captain

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:08:21 +0000

Crossroads got a 1% return on $103 million? No words.

There’s not a lot of upside to being the one to say this but … a lot of this overreaction is just Dems had a really good night and Republicans didn’t. I’m not sure that Republican operatives could have done a whole lot different that would have changed the outcome. In 2010 there was nothing worse than dealing with the *geniuses* born in 2008 who came to believe that elections are won with unlimited money, volunteers and voter enthusiasm, an environment that would apparently live forever. They were unbearable idiots. I’m guessing Tuesday spawned a new generation of unbearable idiot operatives on the Dem side.

by: Pot calling kettle

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:54:49 +0000

I think the bottom line is that while both sides have lots of money, most of the groups on the winning side were also able to bring in people. SEIU is a perfect example of that, you see them knocking on doors and making calls. Crossroads, not so much.

by: lake county democrat

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:54:47 +0000

Sheldon Adelson went 0-for-6. As I keep harping on, gerrymandering is a bigger attack on voters than campaign finance issues. I’m happy that Walsh and Dold lost, but I know that for every Dem-gerrymandering Mike Madigan there’s 1.5 GOP-gerrymandering governors in other states like Texas.

by: amalia

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:49:03 +0000

NRA, you just made my day!!!!!

by: Arthur Andersen

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:12:16 +0000

Regardless of what (tinfoil) hat Rove might be wearing, it’s no wonder that he almost vapor locked on Fox Election Night when they called it for Barack. Poor Megyn “with a Y” Kelly had to walk all the way back to Nerd Central in her C*M pumps to make sure the pollies got it right. Not their finest hour.

by: wordslinger

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:12:13 +0000

From NYT:

–Joe Ricketts, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, spent close to $13 million to bankroll a super PAC attacking Mr. Obama over federal spending.–

Something to keep in mind when they make another run for taxpayer funding for Wrigley. Apparently, he has some disposable income laying around, and is down on government spending.