by Christopher Carmena
The 2008 Presidential election saw a remarkable spending increases in campaigns, political parties, and interest groups. This increase has made the 2008 Presidential election the costliest in history.
According to FEC, Federal Election Committee, numbers that were released on November 5, the total spending by candidates in the 2008 Presidential election was a whopping $1,536,096,379.
An even larger number, was the amount spent by campaigns, political parties, and interest groups in Congressional, as well as this Presidential election cycle. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the complete figure for this is $5.2 billion, up 27% from 2004’s $4.2 billion figure.
President elect, Barack Obama, and Presidential candidate, John McCain, were responsible for raising nearly $1 billion of that figure alone. Barack Obama, the victor in the battle for President, raised $639 million, while John McCain raised a total of $335 million. This disparity in fund-raising numbers can be attributed to McCain’s participation in public financing, which limited his fund-raising in October and November.
This is not the first time that the winner of a Presidential race won by outspending their opponent. This has the been the case for many elections, including the previous two, in which then Governor George Bush outspend his opponent, Vice President Al Gore, in 2000, and outspent Senator John Kerry in the 2004 election.
The most remarkable thing, is not the numbers themselves, but the way in which this money is being raised. Obama’s fund-raising has been unparallel in history, yet has mostly received donations under $250. This was done by expanding the amount of donors immensely, by the use of a strong fund-raising apparatus, that included modern social networking sites, like facebook and twitter.
But what does this mean for elections to come? Will this change the way elections are run?
Some believe the record fund-raising by Barack Obama, while impressive, will hardly be able to be matched in Presidential elections to come. According to an interview for politico.com, an online only news publication, Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert, believes this to be true.
“The false reasoning is Obama is necessarily the new model, He had a perfect environment,” said Corrado, “He was an inspirational figure who already had celebrity status entering the race.” According to Corrado a large part of this has to do with an “extraordinary” primary race, coupled with his appeal to youth voters and skill at social networking.
When asked about the possibility of this being a recurring theme, Corrado asked himself, “Will the next presidential nominee be able to tap into all these facets?”
“Probably not,” said Corrado.
To check out Christopher Carmena’s election preview story click on this link here.
