Following her 9 point drubbing by Susan Collins, Democrat Sara Gideon still has $11,000,000.00 left in her campaign accounts.
By way of context, the population of Maine is 1.35 million.
Collins raised about $30 million, and Gideon raised about $75 million. (And the loser spent only about 85% of that, because there is only so much media in Maine)
This is addition to at least $70,000,000.00 in “independent” PAC spending.
This from a campaign that was literally sending out frantic funding requests emails the day before the election.
The reason that they spent so much money was that for every media buy, the consultants associates with the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) got a percentage.
The same thing happened in Kentucky, where Mitch McConnell destroyed the hapless Amy McGrath by almost 20 points.
In both cases, the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) chose to run a largely content free campaign and a largely content free candidate, and the only winners on the Den side were the consultants.
The same could be said from North Carolina, where 3rd party expenditures, and hence commissions, dwarfed spending be l by both campaigns.
All of these races were seen as winnable, and all of these races were not even close, despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).
By comparison, Democrats won both (still hugely expensive) races in Georgia, largely on the get out the vote efforts of Stacy Abrams, which were a TINY fraction of total spending. (I still don’t trust her though, because of her choices in literature)
For to many in the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), the strategies never change, because they make money from these failed strategies. Lots and lots of money, something like 20% on media buys, and 10% on fundraising.
My advice is the same as always tell the DCCC, DSCC, and the DNC to pound sand, never respond to online or phone solicitations for funds, and chose your candidates yourself.
Act Blue is good, but going through a candidate’s web site is better, and you can get links to their web sites through Act Blue.
Until the plague of consultants, who I liken to a plague of locusts, are ejected from the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), it’s all you can do.
H/t Atrios
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