July 11th, 2013
02:42 PM ET
6 years ago
Cost to win congressional election skyrockets
(CNN) - Cory Booker raised an eye-popping $4.6 million over the past three months for his bid in the New Jersey special election for the U.S. Senate.
The Newark mayor's cash haul that was announced Thursday is the latest example of the skyrocketing costs of winning election or re-election to Congress.
Last year, winning Senate candidates spent an average of $10.3 million, according to the latest edition of Vital Statistics on Congress, which was released this week. That's a 62% increase, adjusted for inflation, since 1986. The report indicates that it took, on average, $1.6 million to win a House seat in 2012, a 344% increase since 1986.
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What these numbers reveal is that there is probably more wealthy donors who are wealthier than they've ever been.
Hence, citizens united, it put a price tag on every public office, and the rich want them all, we are truly scrwewd here
This is the primary reason many good people will not and cannot run! Money is tied to to the hip of one party or the other! Moderates are called Rinos or Dinos and good independents are just dust in the wind!
Politics in this country are out of control, citizens unitted has completely corupted our system, they all know it, admit it, then go back to jumping through hoops to get it. when the powers that rule, rule in favor of this, you know your getting screwed.and boy howdee
The behavior of our beloved gop is disgusting, not even a pretense to care about you, everything they do is the will of the rich, to make them richer yet. to what end?
It is a war of the wealthy..........who is willing to contribute more, to buy power?????
Guess
Politics in this country are out of control, citizens unitted has completely corupted our system
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obama raised record money in 2008 well before citizens united. he said he was going to take public financing and then in his first lie, refused to do so.
nice try though. gonna have to come up with a better lie.
Could someone please tell me what a congressman actually does.
It is a sad fact that people need to raise so much money to win election to a political office. It means that only a few people have a real chance to run and win political office. Remember the SCOTUS said that money is speech so some have more speech than others.
It's called pay-to-play. My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing, mofo.
S.B. Stein - Remember the SCOTUS said that money is speech so some have more speech than others.
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leftists and democrats want to restrict and limit freedom of speech so their lies cannot be refuted.
it is great the ussc came down on the side of freedom of speech.
@Jeff O'Dette
Could someone please tell me what a congressman actually does
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It has been so long since we had an actually working Congress, I don't think we remember what they are supposed to do! ense e
@guess "The behavior of our beloved gop is disgusting"
Actually it is all of them in Wash DC. Obama set some kind of spending record in campaign so he is actually yet another example of money buying an election. And he had some big donations from the likes of Goldman Sachs, etc. Meet the another 1%-er.
The sad truth is that elections are on sale to the highest bidders. The Supreme Court gave the bidding process its blessings with the Citizens United decision.