The Most Expensive Elections in History

To date, the midterm election campaigns in the United States (the elections held on Nov. 2) have spent more than a billion dollars on different candidates. This great electoral battle between Obama Democrats and the Republicans — divided due to the tea party movement — has turned into the biggest joint budget and some of the most expensive elections in the country’s history.

The lobbyists (interest groups) related to Wall Street are not satisfied with Obama’s mandate. They are spending an exorbitant amount of money on all types of televised campaigns.

The faucet of electoral money was opened fully a few months ago when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled — in a sharply divided judgment of five justices against four — on the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns.

The ruling gave the green light for businesses, corporations, interest groups, lobbies and unions to be able to donate unlimited amounts of money for the creation and broadcast of advertisements with electoral purposes.

President Obama’s position against this unlimited funding is in imminent conflict with the position of the highest court. According to Obama, this ruling “gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote in their way — or to punish those who don’t.”

To get an idea, here are some facts:

– The interest groups spend an average of $300 million a month in order to lobby the members of Congress and the Senate. That amounts to a total of four billion dollars annually.

– There are 42,000 people dedicated to lobbying in the U.S.

– Seventy percent of Congress’ unrestricted budget is aimed at the interest groups.

Getting back to the candidates, Mike Bloomberg is currently the politician who has spent more of his own money on his campaign. In his re-election last year for mayor of New York, Bloomberg broke all records, spending $105 million of his own money. On the other hand, his opponent, [William] Thompson, “only” had $10 million to spend. The result? Despite the great economic difference, Bloomberg won by a pretty tight margin.

At the moment, the “rich” politicians of this election cycle, among whom we find ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina (a Republican [candidate] in California), are pulling from their portfolios. Fiorina has spent more than $6 million of her own fortune.

According to BR,* it is estimated that by election day, less than two months away, all of the campaigns combined will have spent more than $2.8 billion. Thank goodness we are in a world crisis.

*Translator’s Note: BR appears to be The Baeza Report, the author’s own website.