IE money matters
According to an article in the Yellow Sheet, money helps candidates win, but some money is more effective than other money. The article notes, “By a nearly 3-to-1 margin, outside money spent supporting a legislative candidate resulted in a victory.”
The IE money that really mattered in this Primary Election cycle was that spent on attack ads. The Yellow Sheet reports that the “difference is even more stark when it comes to the money spent to defeat a candidate, as four out of every five dollars that funded independent attacks resulted in the targeted candidate losing.”
One example of attack campaigns that worked was Senate President Steve Pierce’s effort to secure his leadership role in the Senate. He used money intended to support Republican candidates in the General Election to secure his power by throwing heaps of money at the Rich Crandall, John Fillmore race.
The win has come at a high price in terms of cash and confidence.
Crandall barely eked out a win despite the heaps of dough, securing Pierce’s spot as president, but left the average man-on-the-street-republican feeling dismayed and disenfranchised going into the General Election.
On the flip side, one consultant told the Yellow Sheet that the groups that “abandon the parties in favor of getting directly involved in races have the luxury of supporting candidates on both sides of the aisle, something that would never happen if the money was given to the Republican or Democrat Parties.
Based on the Pierce effort, voters can’t always depend on their parties to support their candidate, so they have to.