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How Jeb Bush Spent $130 Million Running for President With Nothing to Show for It

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D

Dalek

Member
How Jeb Bush Spent $130 Million Running for President With Nothing to Show for It

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When Jeb Bush formally entered the presidential campaign in June, there was already more money behind him than every other Republican candidate combined. When he suspended his campaign on Saturday night in South Carolina, Mr. Bush had burned through the vast majority of that cash without winning a single state. It may go down as one of the least successful campaign spending binges in history. Here is Mr. Bush’s story, as told by his ledger:

Positive Advertising: $84 Million
When Mr. Bush finally did get in the race, he needed to reintroduce himself to the Republican electorate. After all, it had been eight years since the end of his final term as Florida’s governor, and he had spent the intervening period as a philanthropist, consultant and investment banker. His campaign and a super PAC supporting him spent heavily on sunny advertising spots in the hopes of announcing Mr. Bush to the post-Tea Party Republican Party as a credentialed conservative.
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Clubbing: $94,100
Instead of spending last winter on the hustings of Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Bush held off, instead using the first half of 2015 to raise money in places like New York, Chicago, Texas and Florida. His goal: Raise enough money for a “super PAC” to scare other candidates — especially those with a similar political profile — out of the race. Over the entire campaign, Mr. Bush’s team racked up tens of thousands of dollars in dinner and event tabs at the Yale Club, the Union League Club of Chicago, Nantucket’s Westmore Club, and more than two dozen other haunts of the well heeled and racquetball-inclined.

Valets: $15,800
Donors’ cars don’t park themselves. With an aggressive fund-raising schedule and several major donor gatherings, Mr. Bush and the super PAC, Right to Rise, incurred a proportional parking tab.
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People: $8.3 Million
As Mr. Bush’s campaign matured, he and the group supporting him built one of the largest organizations of any candidate in either party, banking that his superior fund-raising would sustain his high overhead costs, which in turn would yield him wins or near-wins in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, where organizing is critical. But Mr. Bush’s message — experience, civility and technocratic competence — did little to win over voters mesmerized by the billionaire provocateur Donald J. Trump, who outshone his rivals with a bare-bones organization and millions in free media exposure.
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Branding: $88,387
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Vegas, Baby: $48,544
Mr. Bush and his staff racked up sizable travel bills, including $3.3 million in airfare and hundreds of thousands of dollars at hotels, ranging from a Best Western in Phoenix to the Biltmore in Coral Gables, Fla. But what stands out is the Bush team’s taste for the Vegas Strip, where aides and allies patronized the Bellagio, the Wynn and the Venetian, owned by Sheldon Adelson, the Republican megadonor.
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The Consultants: $10 Million
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Pizza: $4,837
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More detail at the link.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Jeb is a big fat mess
 
S

Somnid

Member
Money can't win you the presidency in the social media age because advertising doesn't work the same way. Lots of people are learning that, and a lot of well based ideas and strategy are now obsolete.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
PeakPointMatrix said:
What a fucking embarrassment. To think all of the good that money could have been used for :/
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The shame is that if even you made elections far less reliant on huge sums of money (a good thing) it's highly doubtful this money would go to better causes. It'd just be going to paying lobbyists, or those "coal creates jobs!" propaganda commercials and the like.
 
O

Oriel

Member
All that money gone on an utterly worthless cause. Still, I hope some of his idiotic donors are feeling the financial pinch now. Lol.
 
A

AlphaSnake

...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
The idiots who handed him this money didn't deserve it to begin with.

Insert old adage here.
 
Z

zashga

Member
I'd say this is the most embarrassing political campaign in history, but Trump is still in the race, possibly cruising to the nomination. I guess they can both be embarrassing for different reasons.

What a time to be a republican.
 
P

PeskyToaster

Member
Kind of trickle down economics. All these rich people separated from their money and then it is put back into the economy by failed campaigns.
 
K

Kabouter

Member
PeakPointMatrix said:
What a fucking embarrassment. To think all of the good that money could have been used for :/
Click to expand...
It's not like the money has disappeared and it's not like he spent public money. I don't think it's a big deal. If anything, it's a good thing that spending so much evidently doesn't guarantee success.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Old Gimlet Eyes said:
After his brother fucked the country so hard, how did he even think he had a chance??
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I use to think the same thing prior to seeing his brother win his second term as President. The issue for Jeb was that the Republican establishment is no longer representative of the of the party at large. Jeb also had the personality of a doorknob.
 
R

Raxus

Member
Crazy, Hillary's ledger would be interesting to look at as well. As well as Bernie and Trump.

I will say this. If nothing else this election proves money doesn't corrupt politics as much as we thought. Crazy prevails.
 
Y

Yekshemesh

Member
Old Gimlet Eyes said:
After his brother fucked the country so hard, how did he even think he had a chance??
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He did have a chance, a great one at that. The Bush's were practically untouchable to other Republicans. Than Trump entered the race and all the things that you weren't suppose to bring up as a Republican candidate Trump did, and it was the most epic smackdown of character and the record of the Bush's.
 
P

Protein

Banned
Those billionaire lobbyists need to work longer hours, pay their taxes, and stop freeloading off my hard earned tax dollars.
 
Amory

Amory

Member
He was always fighting an uphill battle with the Bush name.

10 years ago all that spending probably buys him a much better shot at the nomination, but times have changed
 
K

Kabuki Quantum Lover

Member
Amory said:
He was always fighting an uphill battle with the Bush name.

10 years ago all that spending probably buys him a much better shot at the nomination, but times have changed
Click to expand...

The hill was Trump. He was fucked the moment Trump said he was running. Everyone assumed it'd be a Bush vs Clinton election.
 
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