Campaign Spending: What a Waste

Does all that money accomplish anything?

Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC 2.0)

Pretty much every time I turn on the TV these days, I am reminded of one of the following messages:

• Sherrod Brown loves illegal immigration and will do whatever he can to allow more of it;
• Bernie Moreno is a sleazy car dealer who screwed over his employees;
• Sherrod Brown worked with Donald Trump on fentanyl legislation;
• Bernie Moreno loves Trump and Trump loves him back;
• Sherrod Brown is a career politician and Washington insider who created inflation; or
• Sherrod Brown saved the Ohio steel industry and loves blue-collar workers.

That’s right — it’s election season and I live in a state with a tight Senate race. So, during this year’s Olympics, many of the usual commercials have been replaced by political ads for our Senate candidates (at least it’s a break from the usual fare: lengthy commercials for obscure prescription drugs). And this is only a Senate race — I can imagine what it’s like for people living in presidential swing states right now.

My local Senate candidates have raised a lot of money to run these ads. By May of this year, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno had already reserved $150 million in ad purchases…