Not cost-effective. It costs a left-wing candidate more to run in the Democratic presidential caucuses and primaries than to run as a Green candidate in the general election. Howard Dean spent over $40 million, did not win a single primary, and got forced out on February 18, 2004 -- five months before the Democratic Party National Convention on July 26-29 and more than ten months before the election day in November. The losers who gave money to Dean spent $40 million -- and the losers who gave to Dennis Kuninich spent $5 million -- without earning a single vote for their candidate in the general election. In contrast, our man "Ralph Nader spent only $8.5 million on his national presidential campaign" in 2000 (Yvonne Abraham, "Clean Elections Offers a Big Lift to Green Party," _The Boston Globe_, March 3, 2002, <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0303-02.htm>) and got 2,882,955 votes in the general election ("U.S. Presidential Elections: Leftist Votes," <http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/government/elections/president/timeline.htm>) -- about $2.9 per vote in the general election, which is far less than $100 per vote for Dean, $80 per vote for Kucinich, and $7 per vote for Al Sharpton in the Democratic caucuses and primaries (Cf. Norman Soloman reports that, in 1996, Nader "opted to cap his campaign expenditures at $5,000" ["News That Still Goes Unreported: "Dollars Per Vote," <http://www.fair.org/media-beat/980604.html>] and received "685,128 votes nationwide," spending only "seven-tenths of a penny per vote" ["Bumpy Media Road For A Wellstone Presidential Drive," <http://www.fair.org/media-beat/980716.html>] -- our Consumer Advocate sure knows how to get his money's worth).
Take a look at how money gets lost in the Democratic caucuses and primaries:
***** The New York Times February 29, 2004, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 1; Page 18; Column 1; National Desk LENGTH: 1017 words HEADLINE: THE 2004 CAMPAIGN; Political Points BYLINE: By JOHN TIERNEY; Rhasheema A. Sweeting contributed reporting for this column.
. . . Add Up the Dollars, Er, Votes
THAT old promise of a chicken in every pot looks like a bargain compared with the sums politicians are spending this year to win votes. Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri spent $18 million in his presidential campaign, which ended after he won fewer than 14,000 votes in Iowa. That works out to about $1,300 per vote, which would be enough to buy every voter a chicken, a pot and a full-featured stove.
To be fair, you could include the votes that Mr. Gephardt has been picking up in primaries since he left the race. Counting them, his per-vote cost stands at about $600. So he can point to at least one bigger spender in the past: Steve Forbes, whose quest for the Republican nomination in 2000 cost $86 million, or about $650 per vote. But Mr. Gephardt is still comfortably ahead of another plutocrat: Michael R. Bloomberg paid about $100 per vote while spending more than $73 million to win the race for New York mayor.
Among this year's Democrats, the next highest roller was Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who spent $17 million, or a little more than $200 for every vote he won in the primaries until he withdrew. Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, spent the most, $42 million, but took back enough of America to average about $100 per vote until his withdrawal. Gen. Wesley K. Clark spent $22 million, or just less than $60 per vote.
Among the active candidates, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio has spent $5 million, or about $80 per vote so far. Mr. Edwards's $22 million in spending works out to nearly $24 per vote, and Mr. Kerry's $31 million to $21 per vote. But the most cost-effective of all is the Rev. Al Sharpton. By spending a little more than $600,000, he's paying less than $7 per vote, which is just about the price of a chicken. *****
$18 million (Gephardt) + $17 million (Lieberman) + $42 million (Dean) + $5 million (Kucinich) + $22 million (Edwards) + $600,000 (Sharpton) = $104,600,000 = wasted dollars of the Democratic losers and their contributors who do not get a single vote in the general election. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>