[oldie]

Hi chaps. Soon it will all be over, and the sooner the better IMHO

Will anyone, any body, any organisation be able to come up with an overall estimate of the total cost, dollar wise, of this Presidential election

Why do I have this nasty taste in my mouth that this cost might well be considered abhorrent by many people, both in the USA and the world over

Regards - Oldie

[Ciberblade]

www.campaignmoney.com

[iltos]

Originally Posted by ciberblade

www.campaignmoney.com

so total disbursements are around 450 million for the three candidates listed?

[Ciberblade]

lets see...
214,407,083 -- Kerry
225,797,733 -- Bush
...2,823,383 -- Nader
------------
443,028,199

So yes

[iltos]

so...next time, let's just distribute all that money in inverse proportion to taxable income, keep health care privatized, do away with the student loan program and welfare, stop farm subsidies, and let the media cover the candidates however they want (no advertising).....

and stop whining

[LANMaster]

Total Cost of the US Presidential Election ?

PRICELESS!

[Gibble]

Originally Posted by iltos

so...next time, let's just distribute all that money in inverse proportion to taxable income, keep health care privatized, do away with the student loan program and welfare, stop farm subsidies, and let the media cover the candidates however they want (no advertising).....

and stop whining

...we're only talking about half a billion dollars here, not half a trillian

[angelize56]

Hi Bill! How are you doing?? Here's a good answer to your thread question! Take care! angel

Cost of 2004 Elections: $4B and Counting
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The price of democracy in 2004: $4 billion, and that's not even counting all the ballots, poll workers and election lawyers.

Add the expenses borne by states and local government - to be determined later - and the price tag rises anywhere from hundreds of millions of dollars to possibly upward of $1 billion more.

In the business world, $5 billion would be enough to buy out Donald Trump - twice. It would pay for about 2,200 Super Bowl commercials, or educate about 30,000 students at Yale, the alma mater of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry.
Where did all the money go?

Congressional and presidential candidates alone devoted at least $1.8 billion to their primary and general election campaigns, with about one-third of that spent by Bush and Kerry.

Ad firms consumed much of the money, but other small businesses got a piece of the action, too. Former Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, for example, spent nearly $7,000 on "thank you'' chocolates for donors, bought from home state truffle maker Lake Champlain Chocolates.

The Democratic and Republican parties and the host committees helping them spent about $162 million on their nominating convention, including about $29 million in taxpayer money.

In all, the two parties spent at least $957 million this election cycle. Bush and Kerry also have millions to draw on in case of a presidential recount - some $78 million between the two politicians.

Much of the money poured into partisan politics this election cycle came from outside groups. Organizations collecting the unlimited donations the national parties are now barred from raising spent at least $436 million in 2003 and '04, figures compiled by the Political Money Line campaign finance tracking service show.

In addition, the AFL-CIO and its two largest unions planned to spend $150 million urging members to vote.

Taxpayers are throwing in hundreds of millions of dollars more.

The National Association of Secretaries of State estimates the elections will cost an average of $33 million per state. The costliest: California, at roughly $66 million. The least expensive is Wyoming, about $500,000.

The Justice Department is sending out more than 1,000 election observers and poll monitors, and will figure out the cost later.

With thousands of different agencies involved from the local to the federal level, it would be a massive undertaking to obtain solid spending figures from everyone, Government Accountability Office noted.

The estimated $4 billion that candidates, party committees and interest groups devoted to the congressional and presidential races is about $1 billion more than in the 1999-2000 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.

It's a lot of money - but still a bargain compared with what it could cost to match the net worth of the nation's wealthiest person, Bill Gates.

The Microsoft founder could cover campaigning and voting costs for about eight elections like this one - without going broke.

[oldie]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Hi Bill! How are you doing?? Here's a good answer to your thread question! Take care! angel

Cost of 2004 Elections: $4B and Counting
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004

Hi Mar - doing fine thanks. More importantly, how are you

Just out of curiosity, are there other members here who may find the above figure rather disturbing? I was taken aback, to put it mildly, with LANS reply = PRICELESS - really I always considered the guy to possess a certain degree of humanitarianism = Concern for human welfare, especially as manifested through philanthropy.
The belief that the sole moral obligation of humankind is the improvement of human welfare. Perhaps bigotry would be a more apt description PRICELESS indeed

Perhaps some people need to suffer serious ill health. Or watch a loved one suffer such pain,cum death, before they are brought to their senses. A wake up call

Regards - Oldie

[moebius]

4 billion... i wonder how many hungry people around the world could get three squares a day for a decade with that kind of money...

[Gibble]

Uh, guys, your forgetting, that 4billion dollars is spent on advertising, and paying people...would you rather all these people were out of work?

That 4billion goes a long way to keeping people employed and helping the economy, all that money is going back into the United States, it's not being spent overseas.

...why must everything be percieved as negative?

[deh]

And don't forget about the costs to linsky and company?

BTW-Which will happen first Kerry conceding or the TSG libs submitting thier promised donations?

[Wino]

Originally Posted by deh

And don't forget about the costs to linsky and company?

BTW-Which will happen first Kerry conceding or the TSG libs submitting thier promised donations?

As gbrumb said in another thread, "It ain't over until the fat lady sings"! I expect my credit card will be used before this day ends.

[deh]

Originally Posted by Wino

As gbrumb said in another thread, "It ain't over until the fat lady sings"! I expect my credit card will be used before this day ends.

So since it's not over would you care to double your bet? I'm sure Mulder wouldn't have a problem matching it. j/k

[Wino]

Originally Posted by deh

So since it's not over would you care to double your bet? I'm sure Mulder wouldn't have a problem matching it. j/k

I may be stupid, but not foolish.