GOP Spent Nearly $40 Million On House Races In Campaign's Final Days
In the final two-and-a-half weeks of the midterm election, the GOP spent a staggering amount of money -- nearly $40 million -- on House races without picking up a single seat and while losing 29 of them to the Dems, according to new campaign finance filings analyzed by CQ Politics.
CQ found that the NRSC spent $37.5 million in the final period beginning on Oct. 19 and ending on Nov. 27. The vast majority of that cash would almost certainly have been spent on the election. The DCCC, meanwhile, spent less -- $30.6 million -- during the same period.
So we thought it would be fun to do a little math.
As of now -- assuming Dems don't win in either TX-23 or in FL-13, the last two seats where it's still an open question which party will win -- Dems gained a total of 29 House seats.
So by our calculation, in the campaign's final stretch the Dems spent roughly $1.05 million per House seat taken from the GOP. Meanwhile, the GOP spent approximately $1.29 million per House seat lost.
That means that the GOP spent over $200,000 more per seat lost than the Dems spent per seat gained.
Something to think about.
To look at it another way, if for every $1 a Democratic campaign spends, the Republicans will spend $1.50, it makes sense for the Democrats to target as many races as possible in 2008 and every cycle afterwards. The old MO of targeting only a handful of races played into Republican hands because it meant they didn't have to hemorrhage money defending a few dozen seats. The next cycle may not see quite the same type of GOP meltdown, but the more places the GOP has to throw buckets of cash the better it will be for Democrats when it comes to keeping the House.
December 9, 2006 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've heard the national Repubs (not sure if that's just the NRCC or the RNC too) spent half a million alone against Tammy Duckworth in the IL-06 in the last 5 days. And they would have spent more but there was literally no more commerical time to be bought on local TV stations.
Amazing.
December 9, 2006 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure that's true. They dumped ridiculous amounts into that race and ran one of the lowest, most vile campaigns against her. Rovian politics at its worst.
December 9, 2006 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll be interested in seeing the final totals in that race. Tammy personally outraised Roskam by over a million. By much more than that when it came to individuals vs. PAC money. But I want to see how much the NRCC and RNC shoveled into this race.
December 10, 2006 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink