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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

So, who’s spent what? Trump, $4 million; Cruz, $4.2 million, Bush . . . $58.8 million?

We’ve always known which candidate is the favorite of the Republican donor class, and supposedly Jeb Bush’s access to cash was the reason he had to be considered one of the favorites - if not the favorite - for the nomination as this cycle began. Well, he certainly has raised the money, and he certainly has spent the money.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his super PAC, Right to Rise, have spent $58.8 million on the 2016 campaign, a recent analysis found. That’s almost $2 million more than the combined total of the next three biggest spenders (and their super PACs and outside supporters): Marco Rubio ($32.6 million), Hillary Clinton ($12.8 million), andBernie Sanders ($11.6 million). And what has this gotten the Bush campaign? Unfortunately for Mr. Bush, not all that much.

The first Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling that included a trial heat of the Republican primary was in April 2015; it found Mr. Bush in the lead with 23% of the vote. In the January WSJ/NBC poll, Mr. Bush came in at 5%. Presumably more exasperating for the Bush campaign and its donors is that the relatively frugal campaigns of Donald Trump–someone not known for sparing expense–and Ted Cruz are leading the Republican field, having spent $4 million and $4.2 million, respectively.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How? I haven't even seen an ad for him. Just more cash in his pockets, like ALL politicians.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post and for 9:24's comment.Now it makes perfect sense.

Anonymous said...

We must not be on the "important state" list.

Anonymous said...

Proves politics is broken. Take it mr trump .

Anonymous said...

Waste of money. Trump's was his own, most of the rest was taxpayer backed, or big corporation. Sooner or later the mainstream media and ruling class will learn that Trump is winning over the working class people that vote.

Anonymous said...

Don't know how Trump is spending $4M on ads because he's getting plenty of free ads with Fox and other networks talking nonstop about him. Seems a bit high. Bush is probably spending double that because he's smeared every other candidate on vying for the Republican ticket. Given the fact that there's so many primary candidates I'm sure that's costing a pretty penny.