Editorial: The high cost of running for office
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The 2024 election season was expensive.
AdImpact, a Virginia-based advertising analytics firm, reported the total cost of political advertising leading to this year’s general election at a staggering $11 billion.
Most of that, obviously, went to the presidential races. The top of the ticket crossed $3 billion. That was more than all political ad spending in 2016.
Senate seats like the one in Pennsylvania that has come down to a recount between incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and AP-declared winner Republican Dave McCormick was $2.6 billion. Another $1.7 billion was spent on U.S. House races.
“Downballot” spending — anything that wasn’t for president, Congress or governor races — was a shade under the presidential total at $2.9 billion.
On one hand, that’s unsurprising given how many seats across the country that meant. On the other, it points to a huge investment when you realize it is still more than that $2.6 billion total in 2016 — another watershed political year.
But did that matter in Pennsylvania, where it seemed like the presidential and Senate races dominated advertising?
It did.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the total investment by Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly races was more than $35 million.
The largest slice of that pie — more than $18 million — was on behalf of House Democrats, which helped them keep the hair-thin majority won in 2022 and kept through a series of special elections over the past two years.
The smallest was by Senate Democrats, who lost a bid to swing control of the upper chamber, which seems cemented in GOP hands.
The money may have made a difference in some places. In others, it’s questionable. The race that gave Democrats back the House was that of incumbent Rep. Frank Burns. Cambria County stayed with their known quantity with $3.4 million in investment — but it was down to the wire despite just $250,000 spent by Republicans.
This comes two years after huge expenditures in the 2022 gubernatorial election and another U.S. Senate race that pitted John Fetterman against Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz.
It all points to escalating advertising costs in elections at every level. That’s something that could have real impact moving forward. Will candidates have to raise millions of dollars to compete at even lower levels? Will that affect the number of quality candidates who run? Will it make candidates and elected officials more susceptible to lobbying?
Once again, it is time for Pennsylvania’s lawmakers to consider tightening campaign finance laws and creating a gift ban. But with advertising numbers this high, maybe they just can’t afford it.