Left In Lowell

Dick’s post last week on City Council campaign spending caught my attention.

He reviewed the reports that were filed with the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) and analyzed how much each candidate raised and spent.

The data not only showed how efficient City Councilor Patrick Murphy’s campaign was, spending $0.71/vote but the wide range in spending, from Murphy’s $3,627 to ex-City Councilor’s $28,330.

After reading the blog, I reviewed the reports filed with the OCPF focusing on expenditures that were directly associates with media.

The Sub-Total column represents the spending on media/outreach while the Total Spending is for all expenditures including fund raising costs.

Murphy’s campaign spending or lack of it is amazing. Does it reflect a new approach to spending for local elections or is it an anomaly? Patrick did not spend money and in turn did not have to raise any. I wonder if it will encourage others to run this kind of race in the future.

If you review where the funds were spent, there is a major difference between incumbents and challengers. The latter had to send all of their money doing direct outreach work, while a number of incumbents spent their campaign money on supporting charity, social, athletic, fraternal organizations’ fund raisers. I really wonder if this kind of spending turns into strong political support.

As I had commented on Dick’s blog, if CC R. Elliott had spent more money, would he have finished near CCs K. Broderick, J. Milinazzo and B. Martin? I think so.

Also, if ex-CC A. Mercier had spent more money on outreach/advertisement, would he have finished in the top 9? Maybe. But then if spending equated winning, A. Kazanjian would have finished in the top 9.

The money spent on paper advertisement is much larger than the radio because the print ads are much more expensive than radio ads.

As for new media, well most of it is free so there are no expenditures. Facebook, Youtube, twitter, web sites, blogs and e-mail blasts do not cost a campaign any money. All three winning challengers used some or of these new media quite successfully.