$3,624,535.32 = Why we need campaign finance reform.

[trof]

From "Restoring the Public Trust" by Bill Moyers posted at thuthout.org:

"Some simple facts:

The cost of running for public office is skyrocketing. In 1996, $1.6 billion was spent on the Congressional and Presidential elections. Eight years later, that total had more than doubled, to $3.9 billion.

Thanks to our system of privately financed campaigns, millions of regular Americans are being priced out of any meaningful participation in democracy. Less than one half of one percent of all Americans made a political contribution of $200 or more to a federal candidate in 2004. When the average cost of running and winning a seat in the House of Representatives has topped one million dollars, we can no longer refer to that August chamber as "The People's House." If you were thinking of running for Congress, do you have any idea where you would get the money to be a viable candidate?

At the same time that the cost of getting elected is exploding beyond the reach of ordinary people, the business of gaining access to and influence with our elected Representatives has become a growth industry. Six years ago, in his first campaign for President, George W. Bush promised he would "restore honor and integrity" to the government. Repeatedly, during his first campaign for President, he would raise his right hand and, as if taking an oath, tell voters that he would change how things were done in the nation's capitol. "It's time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington, DC," he would say. His administration would ask "not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022406A.shtml

$3.9 BILLION!?
OK, I did the math.
My little handheld computer won't handle a figure that high, so I had to go to google's online computer.
There are 536 members of congress, house and senate.
If every seat were contested (which they aren't) that would mean 536 incumbents running against 536 challengers. That's 1072 campaigns.

I wasn't sure whether the presidential/vice-presidential campaign counted as one or two. I'll be very liberal (;-))and count it as two.
That's four more campaigns for a grand total of 1076 presidential and congressional contestants.

$3.9 Billion divided by 1076 = $3,626,535.32
That would be the AVERAGE spent by each contestant.
Incumbent usually raise much more money than challengers.

This is why we need campaign finance reform.

[AllegroRondo]

1. thats about $38 per voter.

[trof]

2. Interesting.

Thanks.