It seems every election cycle, there'll be somebody in the commentariat who will write about how money is tarnishing our elections. Especially dark money. As if Americans count the number of television commercials they see before deciding how they feel about the issues. It's always been a dubious argument. This year it might get dubious-er.
You don't have to go far to find examples. Look just over the line in Texarkana. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg spent $100 million in key states this year to defeat Donald Trump in those particular precincts. Word has it that the ex-candidate put that money into Texas, and Ohio, and Florida. Donald Trump won all three.
In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham was in the fight of his political life. He trailed his opponent's fundraising by $67 million to more than $100 million. Still, the senator of some note won re-election with about 55 percent of the vote.
"To all the pollsters out there, you have no idea what you are doing," Sen. Graham said in his victory speech. "And to all of the liberals in California and New York, you wasted a lot of money."
This year's U.S. Senate race in Maine was the most expensive in that state's history. The incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins, raised $27 million for her campaign. Her opponents poured in nearly $70 million in the Democratic campaign (not including all the dark money). The Democrat, Sara Gideon, conceded Tuesday night.
The Democrat in the Senate race in Iowa raised more money than Republican incumbent Joni Ernst, and the outside money to oppose the incumbent dwarfed all of that. Still, Sen. Ernst won re-election.
Roll Call reported in October that every single Republican candidate in competitive races for the U.S. Senate (which wouldn't include, say, Tom Cotton's campaign) was out-raised by their opponents in the all-important third quarter of this year. Some were lapped by Democratic opposition.
The Democrats and their allies spent a small fortune trying to elect Joyce Elliott to Congress in central Arkansas. French Hill's small fortune won the day. This paper reported that Democrats outraised Republicans in several suburban legislative districts. In one, a challenger appears to have lost even after doubling the incumbent's fundraising efforts.
Asa Hutchinson was out-raised the year he won the governor's race in Arkansas. So was Leslie Rutledge before she became AG. So was Tim Griffin before he became lieutenant governor.
In 2016, Jeb Bush raised $119 million to promote his campaign.
We could go on.
Money talks--it fairly hollers. But in many elections, it doesn't seem to be the most important thing needed to win. Did we mention that Mike Bloomberg was once upon a time a candidate for president? A resonating message seems more central to voters than repeated commercials.
Big Money hasn't killed democracy yet. It hasn't even winged it.