Regular readers of this blog know all too well my unhealthy obsession with campaign money matters, especially as they relate to the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Arkansas.
Now here’s retired Army Col. Conrad Reynolds, who announced Monday he is running as a Republican to challenge Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, telling the AP he intends to raise $500,000 by the end of the year.
Let’s run a little thought experiment here. Lincoln has raised an average of about $500,000 each month this year, for a total of about $3 million to date. If she were to continue raising money at that rate for the next 16 months—not even speeding up her pace, just staying steady at the pace she’s kept up to date—she could conceivably raise $11 MILLION for the whole race.
I’m not saying she WILL raise that much money—only that there’s a conceivable pathway to such numbers.
I’m also not saying that the Republican challenger will need to match her dollar for dollar to be competitive. But he’ll still need a lot. The question is, do any of the Republican hopefuls really grasp how much money they’re going to need to do this?
$11 million? I don’t even know how you would spend that much money on a race in Arkansas, do you? I suppose you could if you were to pay your campaign staff salaries so big they would make Ernie Passailaigue blush.
I’m just kidding, of course. I can’t even imagine a salary number so big that it would make Ernie Passailaigue blush.
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