$68.8 million spent on '07 Legislative Races in NJ

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

PolitickerNJ crunched the numbers, and a record $68.8 million was spent on legislative races in the Garden State this year, up from $57.1 million in 2003, the last time State Senate races topped the ballot.

Democrats, of course, massively outspent Republicans.  The biggest cash drain was the Monmouth County-based District 12, where Dems flushed $5,016,394 (!) down the toilet in a district where they lost a Senate and an Assembly seat.  Republicans spent a mere $884,686 in the district.

The Dems' two Senate pickups were expensive.  Van Drew's new Cape May/Cumberland County seat (and holding his open Assembly seat) cost $3.56 million.  His opponents spent $1.26 million.

In neighboring Atlantic County, Jim Whelan defeated an incumbent by spending $3.19 million, while Republicans spent only $1.06 million.  Still, despite being outspent by better than two million, Republicans did pick up Whelan's open Assembly seat.

Democrats outspent Republicans to try to elect turncoat Fran Bodine in the Burlington County-based 8th District, but only marginally: $1.58 million (D) to $1.35 million (R).  The Senate race was a GOP blowout, as was the Assembly race, which resulted in a GOP pick up.

Democrats also marginally outspent Republicans in District 11, and 39, neither of which were even remotely close.  A combined $1.46 million was dropped in the Monmouth County-based District 11 ($823K to $633K); $2.78 million was spent in the Bergen County-based 39th ($1.64m to $1.14m).

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Absolutely ridiculous.

I think our average state house campaign spends $20,000... possibly less.   I think Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has like $800,000 in the bank, but doesn't spend much of it.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I think this shows most importantly that w/money the Republicans will win in NJ again.  That could take awhile again.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Jesus. And people in this country think that too much is spent on elections.

[bullmoose88]

Jesus. And people in this country think that too much is spent on elections.

Then again, 68.8 million USD is worth what over there nowadays...10 quid?

:-p

<i kid>

[Gabu]

Jesus. And people in this country think that too much is spent on elections.

You're tellin' me, my mind always gets blown whenever I see how much gets dropped into US elections.  If I recall correctly, here in Canada candidates are only allowed to spend something in the five digits on their campaign... what a thought, making it so that elections can't be simply bought.

[Brittain33]

Democrats, of course, massively outspent Republicans.  The biggest cash drain was the Monmouth County-based District 12, where Dems flushed $5,016,394 (!) down the toilet in a district where they lost a Senate and an Assembly seat.  Republicans spent a mere $884,686 in the district.

If I were a NJ Dem, I wouldn't be concerned about flushing money "down the toilet;" campaign funds are use-it-or-lose-it, it's not as if they had anything else to do with the money or that they earned it themselves. The issue here is how much influence they traded away for that money and still emerged with solid control of the legislature. That $5 million represents a lot of promises and influence traded away just for a stalemate. The losers here aren't the Democratic Party, but New Jersey. It's also unfortunate that the Senate lost one legislator who could have worked with ethical people across the aisle in a tighter or Republican-controlled senate to fix things, and the Democrats who remained are those who are part of the problem.

It was no better under Republicans, and will be as bad or worse when they take over in the future. I can only hope that some time in the wilderness at a federal level will bring more people over to the cause of campaign finance reform, no matter how ungainly it is. New Jersey is Exhibit A for why it's needed.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Democrats, of course, massively outspent Republicans.  The biggest cash drain was the Monmouth County-based District 12, where Dems flushed $5,016,394 (!) down the toilet in a district where they lost a Senate and an Assembly seat.  Republicans spent a mere $884,686 in the district.

If I were a NJ Dem, I wouldn't be concerned about flushing money "down the toilet;" campaign funds are use-it-or-lose-it, it's not as if they had anything else to do with the money or that they earned it themselves. The issue here is how much influence they traded away for that money and still emerged with solid control of the legislature. That $5 million represents a lot of promises and influence traded away just for a stalemate. The losers here aren't the Democratic Party, but New Jersey. It's also unfortunate that the Senate lost one legislator who could have worked with ethical people across the aisle in a tighter or Republican-controlled senate to fix things, and the Democrats who remained are those who are part of the problem.

It was no better under Republicans, and will be as bad or worse when they take over in the future. I can only hope that some time in the wilderness at a federal level will bring more people over to the cause of campaign finance reform, no matter how ungainly it is. New Jersey is Exhibit A for why it's needed.

Well, when I say wasted, I mean that the money would have been better going elsewhere.  It's not as if Ms. Karcher herself raised $5 million—nothing could be farther from the truth.  It's just money that was "wheeled" in from other counties.

That money would have been better used elsewhere, say in winning freeholder seats in Atlantic (where Republicans had a net gain of seats), Monmouth, or Somerset (where Democrats came very close to a very historic freeholder win).

[Verily]

Jesus. And people in this country think that too much is spent on elections.

You're tellin' me, my mind always gets blown whenever I see how much gets dropped into US elections.  If I recall correctly, here in Canada candidates are only allowed to spend something in the five digits on their campaign... what a thought, making it so that elections can't be simply bought.

$70,000 per candidate in Canada, IIRC, at least from personal, in-district expenses, which is approximately the equivalent of $1 per registered voter, at least in the "proper districts" in Ontario, Alberta and BC.

I'm not sure if this applies to large-scale media buys by the parties.