Beatty spends $ 1.7 M to raise $2 M. (mostly out of state)

[Mass]

Another reason, if needed, why Beatty is a non issue.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/30/despite_2m_raised_kerry_rival_gets_little/

When a Massachusetts Republican raises nearly $2 million in a bid to unseat a Democratic US senator, it should be a good sign that the campaign wars are in full throttle in this notoriously one-sided state.
...
The reason for the deafening political silence: Beatty has been able to use only a fraction of his donations directly on his race.

The rest, well over $1.7 million, has gone to Response America, a direct mail firm out of Arlington, Va., and its vendors.

Beatty hired the firm to raise donations from a national list of conservative donors eager to defeat high-profile liberals like Kerry. It is one of several controversial fund-raising operations, highlighted by a Globe article in June, that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republican House and Senate candidates but keep most of it.
...

[karynnj]

1. Given that this is the RNC's preferred outfit, it means the response rate is very low

Direct mail is very expensive, but in most campaigns that is the way they raise money. There was a 2006 NYT article speaking of the incredible amount of money that HRC raised in her Senate campaign. From the article, slightly less than half the money she raised was spent on direct marketing. The article did not dwell on this at all making me think that it is normal.

The Beatty campaign explanation - "Jeff's donors were the ones hit the hardest when the energy crisis hit this summer and the full economic crisis hit after the bailout." is unlikely. They were more likely RW people who impulsively donated pasted on Beatty's own push poll showing he had a chance. When it became abundantly clear that they were wasting their money when several Republicans, who were endangered needed it, they didn't give again.

I bet Beatty was shocked when the RNC turned him down. They clearly knew that his campaign was equivalent to throwing money away.