Unions lay a $10 million egg in Arkansas
The midterm elections were already going to be tough for Democrats, thanks to rising public revulsion over federal spending and the unpopularity of the one bill Democrats took nine months to shove down the throats of a nation deeply opposed to it. In red states like Arkansas, the only hope would be to keep centrists on the ticket in order to minimize the damage. Blanche Lincoln, the incumbent, would have a tough time getting elected anyway, but for the hard-Left union activists, she did reluctantly support ObamaCare and has not yet had to cast a single vote on Card Check. That wasn’t enough, however — and now the unions just spent a fortune attempting to unseat her in a race that Democrats are going to lose in the end anyway ...
I wonder what the union members would have done with all that money?
We spend an abusive amount of money on the political process in America these days. What's for sale? What is everyone trying to buy?
Candidates will Spend $5.3 Billion on 2008 Election
The country will spend a record $5.3 billion on federal candidates during the 2008 election cycle, a 27 percent increase from the 2004 cycle, according to a report today from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Spending on the presidential race alone tallied $1.5 billion as of Tuesday, double the spending in the 2004 cycle, and the first time more than $1 billion has been spent on a presidential campaign. By the end of the campaign, spending on the presidential race will total $2.4 billion, the Center reports.
The largest group of donors came from the sector the Center categorizes as Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, giving a total of $373 million. Employees of firms that gave the most were Goldman Sachs with $5 million, Citibank $4.2 million, JPMorgan Chase $4.1 million and the National Association of Realtors with $3.2 million.
$5.3 billion in productive capital flushed down the political toilet.
