Any elections, any year. But… 1$ billion? This year?
A leading expert in political advertising says $1 billion was spent on political ads this year, with the vast majority of that coming from issue advocacy groups.
The health care debate fueled much of the spending this year, according to Evan Tracey of TNS Media Intelligence. But, ironically, the stepped up pace of political advertising may not continue through to next year’s midterm election In an interview with Media Life magazineyesterday, Tracey said economic factors could keep candidates next year from passing 2006’s midterm election record of $3.4 billion in ad spending.
We elect to spend on elections so that we may influence how elections will influence how we spend, or something like that. Why elections are so important is being eclipsed by the importance of spending so much money to influence them. There’s an easy answer to this, shareholders crazyans citizens:
Replace the word election and simply begin calling it a spending contest or, if you prefer, a contest to see how much money a candidate can spend in order to win the office of ______. Being cynical is holding onto the tendency to refer to the contests as elections.