The Cost of Campaign 2008

I stumbled upon a brief commentary that Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, published in the " A Million Ways to Save the World" section of O magazine (August 2007 issue). She makes some points that should be seriously considered in terms of the ability of candidates to be responsive to average joe and jane citizens.

"Almost two years ago before the elections, Hillary Clinton's campaign had already raised $26 million dollars. Barack Obama had $25 million. With the 2008 president race set to cost $1 billion, the likely result is a government that protects the interests of the wealthy but leaves the pressing issues faced by working families unaddressed. If it cost less to run for office, Americas could have leaders who first debt was to the people who gave them their votes, not those who slipped them the funds to buy TV ads. To change the we world, we need politicians who are free to respond to the public will. That means we must demand a discount on elections."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, overall about $718 million dollars was spent by all Presidential candidates in 2004. However as of December 2007 (almost a year before the election), Presidential candidates had already spent about $481 million dollars. For the sake of comparison, in 1976 the total campaign spending for the Presidency was about $70 million dollars.