The Cost of The Us Election Campaign

How much time in our lives we spend with election campaigns? This is a funny question but it is not unfounded when we think about the system in USA. As a true democracy the country holds elections for President every four years. During the president’s term in office there are mid-term elections for state governors and congressmen, federal congressmen and senators and other positions.

The campaign for the mid-term elections lasts about one year. But the pre-presidential campaign including the primaries of the Democratic and Republican parties can lengthen more than one year and a half. This means that the Americans spend more than two and a half years out of every four in pre-election campaigns.

There is no need to comment the impact of all the political meetings, speeches and various events on the voters. It is clear that this could be boring and even overwhelming. But there is one component of all the campaigns that gives more and more concerns. There are warnings in the American press that these elections will be the most expensive in the history of the country. The previsions are for more than 6 000 000 000 US dollars!

Again it is pointless to comment that at these times of economic crises it would be wiser to spend the money for job creation programs or other things that would be more useful for the people. But it is pressing to turn the attention of the public to one major problem which already has been discussed in many American media. This is the major change in the eternal game of lobbying.

The candidates traditionally rely on the so called PACs – Political action committees – to raise donations for their election campaigns. The rules are strict and the personal donations are limited to $5 000 per candidate per election.

Two years ago a landmark Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission made possible the creation of the so called super PACs. If they act “independently” from the candidates they are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money and even not disclose the names of the donors.

A leading example in the Republicans primaries campaign is Restore Our Future – a super PAC created by three supporters of the favorite for the nomination Mitt Romney. The former governor of Massachusetts is the wealthiest candidate but he does not reject some help. According to the press the super PAC of his benefactors has raised $12 million in the first half of 2011 alone. More than $3 million have been spend on TV ads in Iowa attacking one of his opponents Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House was leading in the polls but he finished with the fourth place in the Iowa caucuses.

This time voters in Iowa have been bombarded with punchy ads like never before. Most of the money came from the super PACs. They spent about $16 million, an unprecedented amount of money only in this Midwest state.

With this generous support the candidates use most of their energy to fight against each other instead of delivering compelling political messages to the voters.  This situation in the Republican’s camp makes clear that the financial elite is pulling the strings of the campaign. But some analysts say that the result could be a second term in office for the President Barak Obama.