2010 Campaign's Self-Funder Candidates Come Down To The Wire

If there's one thing that we've learned from our periodic examinations of the 2010 campaign's self-funders, it's that self-funding your own campaign is a pretty bad idea unless your name happens to be Michael Bloomberg. This year, the ten people who have spent the most money from their personal fortunes are batting .500. That's a lot of wasted money -- $71 million, if you're keeping score. But that's still just a drop in the ocean -- Meg Whitman has invested $140 million into her gubernatorial campaign alone. (The thought of analyzing that in terms of opportunity cost is a little bit terrifying!)

Nevertheless, rich people with political ambitions that would help them to become even more rich are still out there. We've added some of the remaining self-funders we opted out of highlighting back to this most recent mix, for a total of twelve. Here's the thing to note: if the current HuffPost Pollster models for each of these races holds true, then ten of these twelve will have essentially set millions of dollars on fire.

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MEG WHITMAN, REPUBLICAN (CA-GOV)

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Meg Whitman left New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record for self-funding in the dust back in mid-September. Since then, she's gone in to the tune of $140 million, and has spent $40 million in the past three months. Keep in mind, the job itself pays only $212,179 a year. Also: you are required to run California. By comparison, her competitor, Jerry Brown, "has spent $10.7 million this year, nearly all of it since Labor Day." What's it gotten Whitman? Brown was up seven in the last poll, and HuffPost Pollster gives him an 97% chance of winning. Do you think Whitman will go down on election day? PREDICT whether her massive spending will payoff come election day.

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Meg Whitman left New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record for self-funding in the dust back in mid-September. Since then, she's gone in to the tune of $140 million, and has spent $40 million in the past three months. Keep in mind, the job itself pays only $212,179 a year. Also: you are required to run California.

By comparison, her competitor, Jerry Brown, "has spent $10.7 million this year, nearly all of it since Labor Day." What's it gotten Whitman? Brown was up seven in the last poll, and HuffPost Pollster gives him an 97% chance of winning.

Do you think Whitman will go down on election day? PREDICT whether her massive spending will payoff come election day.

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Comments

[Stan Madruga]

06:29 PM on 10/25/2010

This woman "Meg" is such an outrageous corporate fraud that it's almost unspeakable that she's has been taken seriously as as a candidate for high office. She is the poster child for Neo-Fascism in America: The corporate billionaire who buys a primary and believes she can buy an election, having all the while despised the democratic process ( having not voted for over a quarter century), and an active record of depising working people and their rights. People should read and view photographs of a landmark book of photojournalism- "How The Other Half Lives," by Jacob Riis. Average people impoverished by the robber barons of the late Nineteenth Century. Eye-opening.

[jdenham]

10:40 AM on 10/25/2010

Meg is trying to create jobs in California. Of course it is only one job for her. The way she treats her maid and employees makes me wonder what kind of contempt she will hold for the people of California after elected.

[greysells2]

10:04 AM on 10/25/2010

This is basically a story of "The Buck Stops Here".

[Patriot86]

09:48 AM on 10/25/2010

Governor Soprano from Jersey...did not seem to help yittle meggie...I used small case for her name and description on purpose...guess when you are a li ar who exploits illegals and then fires them for political gain and can't answer a few questions from either reporters or constituents...and brings in goon governors...you deserve to lose.

[Duppy]

09:20 AM on 10/25/2010

Good. I hope they keep spending. Perhaps they will be broke after the elections and then join the unemployment line.

[JFoxCPT]

08:34 AM on 10/25/2010

Whitman is ONLY interested in enhancing her own wealth and making sure that extremely rich people make even more money. It's impossible for her to look anything other than smug.

[JFoxCPT]

08:29 AM on 10/25/2010

Whitman will rip off as much money from poor and middle class people as she possibly can and then make even more money from ruining the earth and getting her extremely rich friends richer -- so she can to make back what she spent with interest. Self-interest.

[Hillrick]

08:22 AM on 10/25/2010

The only way that money would ever be in circulation as well.

[kimleehan]

07:08 AM on 10/25/2010

They are spending millions of their own money to get a job that pays how much??? and for how long???

[warghul]

08:22 AM on 10/25/2010

Remember, this is about looting America. If you spend 100 million to get elected you are doing it because you plan on getting it all back. These people will use their time in political office to roll back regulation and position outside companies to effectively rip off state and federal government, giving them sweet deals or helping them to destroy their unions or whatever. They will "make" political careers, appointing their creatures to non-elective offices that hold regulatory and oversight roles. Then after their terms, they will go and work for said companies and receive obscene compensation packages because they can influence the people they appointed, and they were responsible for creating those "opportunities."

[hellboundtrain]

06:40 AM on 10/25/2010

At least all of the dollars are out here circulatin'!

[mumi009]

06:03 AM on 10/25/2010

These are business people. They think in terms of "return on investment" and "payback period". They don't sink 140 million dollars of their own money just for their own vanity.

Consider the Representitives and Senators who entered office penniless and managed to accrue a multi-million dollar fortune when they left office or died.

It's all about making money and accumulating wealth.

[dkboy]

01:47 AM on 10/25/2010

By Karen Tumulty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 24, 2010; 11:10 PM

The question around Washington today is not whether Nov. 2 will be a difficult day for the Democrats who control Congress, but rather how bad it will be.

[iconoclast6]

02:42 AM on 10/25/2010

And your point is...?

Oh right. Someone on PHOCKS told you to say that.

Quit using your boss's iPhone, lewzer. There are pizzas to be delivered.

[pina colada]

10:21 PM on 10/24/2010

Are these the same people who are always crying about taxes? They spend all of this money just to gain power. Many people could have been helped in so many ways...And in the end, if she wins she will create more poor people.

[socalcde]

10:06 PM on 10/24/2010

The money did become income for somebody.

[pina colada]

10:22 PM on 10/24/2010

Most likely someone who already has another job or written many books..

[Tim303]

08:46 PM on 10/24/2010

I hope so