Thoughts on Fundraising Reports

Thoughts on Fundraising Reports

Out earlier today on my usual weekend junk crawl I spotted a Vote Yes For Public Power t-shirt, an unwanted souvenir of a hopelessly outspent campaign.

Coincidentally this happened just as campaign finance reports came out.

When you're outspent by a 25 to 1 or 50 to 1 margin, like we were on Public Power, there isn't much you can do. But what if you're being outspent, say, 3 to 1?

A good candidate with a good message and a good plan can win without matching the opponent dollar for dollar, as long as they can buy enough advertising to be visible. Conversely, the political graveyard is littered with the remains of self-financing millionaires who had no message, no experience, no reason for running other than wanting the title Senator or something.

The money matters more the higher the electoral turnout. In a congressional race in a general election, it takes a lot of air time to cut through the top of the ticket noise and real life. But in a primary or a local election, where turnout wanders in the 10-25% range, you're largely preaching to the choir and things like organization make a bigger difference.

What TV buys in a low turnout election is credibility. A lot of the eyeballs you pay for are wasted - folks who vote only in generals if at all. (Which is why targeted cable is smart.) But what you're really paying for is credibility: "I'm on TV therefore I'm a serious player." If your opponent has four ads in the newscast-rerun hour and you have one, you're still on the map.