by Marty Lorrey
On Tuesday February 3rd, registered Democrat and Independent voters had the opportunity to select the Democratic party nominee to be on the ballot in March to fill the seat left void by the death of the late State Senator Edward Kennedy.
Republican and Independent Voters also had the opportunity to select a Republican ballot and write in a candidate’s name. Sam Meas received the 300 plus votes to be placed on the March ballot as that nominee.
I didn’t look at his campaign expenses, if any, because he wasn’t officially on the ballot.
The Democratic candidates were State Representative Vanna Howard and State Representative Rodney Elliott, both from Lowell. What caught my attention after the election was the amount of money spent by both campaigns.
I thought it would be interesting to figure out the cost of each vote. The expenditures included in my calculations are from after they announced their candidacy, through the end of January, days before the election
It’s important to note that the figures I will be using may not be the final numbers. Expenses such as election night parties, late receipts of bills and such may increase the total expenditures. It’s also important to note that I’m not sure if the election results have been certified as of this writing, so the vote could change slightly.
First, the Howard campaign spent an estimated $136,668.34 to win the election.
What caught my eye was the money spent on digital ads, digital mailings and consulting fees totaling approximately $82,236.75 to Italo Fini, a political consultant.
It’s common to see expenditures associated with their cost as well as their services added to their expenses to the campaign. On his website, he has listed a who’s who in Massachusetts as clients. Personally, I think if he wins, he is worth it.
Other expenses were for printing, signs and ActBlue, all the normal expenses one would expect to see.
The Elliott campaign spent $ 67,669.89 over the three month campaign period. He also listed a consultant for $3,900,00 along with signs, printing and of course mailings.
Comparing the two campaigns, I thought the Elliott campaign was very much a traditional state office campaign while the Howard campaign seemed more congressional or senatorial in nature.
When considering the political backgrounds of each candidate, I wasn’t really surprised.
So how much did each vote cost?
State Rep. Howard’s 3,326 votes cost approximately $41.09 per vote.
State Rep. Elliott”s 2,369 votes came out to about $28.56 per vote.
My final thoughts are that all the money spent on ads, mailings, yard signs, etc, by both candidates amounted to a total of 5695 votes from Lowell, Dracut, Tyngsboro, Dunstable and Pepperell.
It’s unfortunate that the money invested by both campaigns to reach the voters resulted in such a poor voter turnout.
I also believe when looking at the cost invested by both campaigns you should consider they were running in five communities.
Congratulation State Rep. Vanna Howard and best of luck moving forward to her, Sam Meas and Joe Espinola, the Unenrolled candidate, in the March general election.
