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Oct. 5th, 2010 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I knew there was a lot of money being spent on the California governor's race, but I had no real idea how much unitl I saw this chart.
Um...OK, Meg Whitman is spending $145 million dollars on this campaign. Of that amount, $120 million dollars is her own money. The chart mentioned above shows that's more personal money spent on a single campaign than anyone else listed (and, I assume, probably more personal wealth than any political candidate for any office ever).
All of this leaves me with one burning question:
Who would want to spend $120 million dollars of their own money to be governor of California. Meg Whitman obviously, but why? It's not clear that even Nigerian levels of corruption in the governor's mansion could ever recoup that kind of investment. The mother of all tax write-offs? Again, an awfully rough way to go about it.
There's only one possible answer I can think of -- Meg Whitman stands to inherit one billion dollars but only if she can burn through $150 million dollars a la Brewster's Millions.
Because otherwise it's like paying top dollar to be captain of the Titanic after it hits the iceberg. There's a lot of stuff I'd do with $120 million dollars but run for political office isn't one of them.
later
Tom
So I knew there was a lot of money being spent on the California governor's race, but I had no real idea how much unitl I saw this chart.
Um...OK, Meg Whitman is spending $145 million dollars on this campaign. Of that amount, $120 million dollars is her own money. The chart mentioned above shows that's more personal money spent on a single campaign than anyone else listed (and, I assume, probably more personal wealth than any political candidate for any office ever).
All of this leaves me with one burning question:
Who would want to spend $120 million dollars of their own money to be governor of California. Meg Whitman obviously, but why? It's not clear that even Nigerian levels of corruption in the governor's mansion could ever recoup that kind of investment. The mother of all tax write-offs? Again, an awfully rough way to go about it.
There's only one possible answer I can think of -- Meg Whitman stands to inherit one billion dollars but only if she can burn through $150 million dollars a la Brewster's Millions.
Because otherwise it's like paying top dollar to be captain of the Titanic after it hits the iceberg. There's a lot of stuff I'd do with $120 million dollars but run for political office isn't one of them.
later
Tom
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-05 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-05 11:19 pm (UTC)I'm sorta hoping that the ROI on running for public office are so terrible that rich people just skip it and do something else.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2010-10-06 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-06 12:18 pm (UTC)