Article #4: The Decreasing Amount of Money Raised by Candidates During NY Elections, Years 2012–2013
Over the years, it seems to appear that the amount of money raised by candidates and committees during elections in New York have been in a constant state of flux. An example of this rather abrupt reduction of raised money is the contrast between years 2012 and 2013. In 2012, committees and candidates had raised $179,641,200 during that year’s election. In the 2013 election however, the money raised was aproximately $150,864,671 less than the year before it, being $28,776,529 to be exact. This fact is rather astonishing, mainly due to the fact that the same number of committees, six to be exact, were there to raise the money, and were the very same committees that raised money for last year’s election. However, when it came to candidates, 2012 had far more candidates raising money than in 2013. This might help explain why the money raised in the 2013 NY elections weren’t even close to the amount raised in 2012, but why were there a lesser number of candidates in 2013 than in 2012?
The anwser may lie in the fact that 2012 was a year when the next president of the United States was being elected. During times like those, there are plenty of candidates that’ll raise money to earn a position in the government, especially if that position is for the presidential office. As a result, money raised in the 2013 elections are far less than in 2012 because the closest positions of authority during those points in time is the city mayor, which has very little, if any, connections to the government. The fact is that candidates and committees will probably spend more money on mayor elections than they raise in presidential elections. Therefore, there weren’t as many candidates raising money for the election in 2013 because the election for the United States’ next president was already decided the year before it.
Another reason might be because of how the presidential elections and the elections in the years before the next president can be voted on work. Instead of voting for the who gets a specific position in the government, the election groups are split between Ballot Measures, State Executives U.S. Congress, State Legislature and School Boards, with the position of Presidency nowhere to be found. Unlike presidential elections, which is a singular, unique event, the elections during the years between the previous election for president and the next one are divided into several scheduled special events. An example of this inculdes a statewide ballot in which there are six measures/proposals to be certified at a specific date, often occuring late in the year such an election takes place. 2013’s first proposal, gambling, was the most covered in media and was discussed more as a ballot measure than the other five, which lead to heavy criticism to the state’s methods; First, the measure’s language and precedent rewriting had been deemed controversial by opponents and some supporters, but no individual or government agency came forward as the rewriter of the measure’s language. Second, ballot measures have “customarily” been placed on the ballot in order of approval by the state legislature, but in 2013 they were not. Third, when the measure’s rewording was approved, the public was not made aware of this until after the date in which a lawsuit against the measure could commence. The main point here, however, is that since 2012 was a presidential election and 2013 was the year after it had taken place, the distinctive rules for the election of that year resulted in lesser candidates participating in that election.
