Record Haul of Money for Republicans has Vanished



The National Republican organization seems to have spent itself broke and is not facing the campaign season with much less money than Democrats. It happened, not due to direct theft, but to pointless spending. Mitch McConnell thinks Senate Republicans will have a hard time getting the majority that had been predicted.

We know no one can predict the drift of a society's values and preferences nor the politics that flows from it. One thing I've both experienced and followed is the role of money. It is apparent one leading Republican Senator became enamored by big tech and its ability to find small donors. It was successful in raising surprising amounts of money but chasing more of it depleted what had been raised. Overspending on technology is like overspending on TV. It can soak up huge amounts of money but sometimes yield nothing.

Decades ago, those leading the Democratic Party in ND saw a close race coming up. According to polls, Democrats had been gaining. The Party was out of money. They developed the theory that this was "momentum" and what the Party needed to do was borrow, buy TV and push on to victory. The ads did not deliver many votes, the Party lost and was now in debt. Regular party members were bitter and did not feel responsible for the mistake. It took years to pay off. 

Republicans now seem to be making a mistake like that. A branch believes if it raises enough money that will ensure victory. Tech people assure them big tech can raise whatever the Party needs. To me, it looks like the Party needs to rethink its platform (though I read Trump did not want a platform so there is none, just a set of its old talking points). It may be, often is, that raising huge amounts of money will not help if there are bad candidates and bad ideas.

So much money is wasted in campaigns. The right candidate at the right time can blow away a well- funded opponent.

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