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Super PAC spending in South Carolina

By on January 21, 2012 in 2012 Presidential Election

Obama Conspiracy Theories is projecting Newt Gingrich as the winner of the South Carolina Republican Primary with 95% of the vote counted.

It appears that money isn’t everything. Romney outspent Gingrich almost 2 to 1 and still lost decisively. In total, the candidates spent, according to the Baltimore Sun,  $5.4 million in South Carolina on TV advertisements, but Super PACs spent $6.9 million. (There may have been another $10 million spent on robocalls, or least it feels that way.) Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.

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I have devised a new statistic for reporting the effectiveness of campaign spending, The “Bang for the buck” is the percentage of the vote (bang) divided by the amount spent in millions (buck) by the candidate and PACs. The Stephen Colbert Super PAC (as measured by the vote count received by his proxy Herman Cain) was by far the most effective in the use of limited campaign funds.

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8 Responses to Super PAC spending in South Carolina

  1. JPotter January 21, 2012 at 10:41 pm  (Quote) #

    Gosh, Doc, are you suggesting that saturation campaigning is far less efficient than a limited number of well-timed, well-placed, and well-written events / statements? The phone calls definitely need to go. That campaign tactic is way past its prime.

  2. Bob January 21, 2012 at 11:49 pm  (Quote) #

    Maybe tomorrow will actually be a better tomorrow, tomorrow!

  3. US Citizen January 22, 2012 at 2:30 am  (Quote) #

    Excellent chart.
    But it also demonstrates that the next and so far truly serious contender actually was the most successful- Gingrich.
    I think it suggests that Mitt might have been over saturated and bought too much airtime. People got tired of seeing him.

    I dislike Gingrich. He reminds me of a dirty old man dressed in a santa suit. If I was three and on his lap, I’d probably have cried.

  4. G January 22, 2012 at 4:17 am  (Quote) #

    With 100% of the reporting now listed, Herman Cain (Stephen Colbert) received 6324 votes (1.05%).

    Bob: Maybe tomorrow will actually be a better tomorrow, tomorrow!

  5. G January 22, 2012 at 5:40 am  (Quote) #

    In terms of looking at “Bang for the Buck” in SC, the true prize is the all-important delegates.

    There were 25 delegates up for grabs in SC. Newt got 23 of them and Mitt the other 2.

    Therefore, based on the dollar numbers you cite:

    Newt’s delegates cost him $ 89,305.74 a piece.

    Whereas Mitt’s 2 delegates cost him a whopping $ 2,056,795.50 each!

  6. G January 22, 2012 at 7:50 pm  (Quote) #

    The best summary analysis of this GOP election race I’ve seen was this quote from a poster at another forum:

    MOLLYSGAGA said:
    Perhaps once a party has traded its signature platforms (responsible foreign policy, fiscal conservatism) for catchy but negative talking points, it either forces its viable candidates to run against their own record of accomplishment, or promotes absolutely unelectable characters with sordid personal, political and financial pasts.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/newt-is-alive-aliiive.html

  7. JPotter January 23, 2012 at 10:27 pm  (Quote) #

    More sweet SuperPAC action: Ron Paul action figures!

    Only $95. Only. Check out SuperPaul 😀

    The fans at DailyPaul are righteously unimpressed.

  8. G January 24, 2012 at 12:42 am  (Quote) #

    ROTFL! Ahhh… thanks for that, quite entertaining – both the action figures and the comments.

    I loved how many of the comments pointed out that the “ill fitting suit” made it a proper reproduction… LOL!

    Ahhh… that was as much fun as my favorite Ron Paul nickname out there:

    RonPaulStiltSkin…

    😉

    JPotter: More sweet SuperPAC action: Ron Paul action figures!Only $95. Only. Check out SuperPaul The fans at DailyPaul are righteously unimpressed.

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