It's that time of year again: election season! Americans may still have over 440 days until they head to the polls, but candidates are not wasting any time. Many of them have already started making the rounds, vigorously venturing to gather support and fill their coffers with the money of both corporations and the American people. In this new age, where corporations are people and money is equivalent to speech, the success or failure of a campaign's fundraising efforts can either rocket a candidate to the headlines of history or condemn him/her to the mere footnotes.
The 2012 presidential race broke the record books with its seven billion dollar price tag. The introduction of SuperPacs made it possible for Mitt Romney and Barak Obama to raise a total of two billion dollars within a year. Romney, the Republican nominee, planned on running since 2008; so there was plenty of time for him and the other candidates, to herd in the money.
The 2016 election has the potential to shatter the money-raising records of the last presidential race. In 2012, there were 17 noteworthy candidates. Currently, there are 18 declared GOP candidates alone. Candidates who have already raised a combine 1/2 a billion dollars. This is not to mention the five declared Democratic candidates and the various third party and independent potentials. Again, the presidential race is about a year and a half away. As John Oliver eloquently put it, "there will be babies born on election day whose parents have not even met yet." There is still plenty of time and money to be had.
Why is it that Americans have been spending such momentous sums on the presidential race? In their 2011 parliamentary race, the two main political parties in Canada (the Liberals and the Conservatives) each raised 19.5 million. Jeb Bush has already raised 120 million dollars, and his campaign was made official only three months ago. Moreover, the combined 39 million that these Canadian parties spent does not go only to the individuals running for the highest office in the land. That money in spent trying to win every parliamentary seat possible. That's 308 seats for the price of tens of millions compared to one seat for the price of several billions. Of course, with a population that is just over 1/10 of that of the U.S., Canada is a much smaller nation and should thus spend much smaller amounts of money. However, proportionally, if Canadians spent as much as on elections as Americans, they would find themselves out about 700 million dollars.
Perhaps it is the absurdly protracted time frame in which Americans allow presidential hopefuls to campaign and subsequently collect funds. The roughly 1.5-2 years that presidential candidates greedily appropriate money is utterly laughable compared the the 6-week campaign season in the U.K. Nevertheless, the spending spree is more likely due to this new era of relaxed campaign finance regulations. In Canada, each party cannot raise more than 21 million dollars. Rather than set limitations on campaign financing, the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision unleashed virtually unlimited money into politics. If money is speech, does that mean the richest among us have the loudest, most eloquent and influential voice?
How much will a four year lease on the White House cost this time around-- eight billion? nine billion?
