How Much Does It Cost To Win Election To Congress?

from the a-lot dept

A year ago, we wrote about a fantastic episode of the radio program This American Life, which was all about lobbying. One part of it revealed just how much time our elected officials in Congress spend fundraising, and the numbers were somewhat astounding. Both major political parties have set up phone banks across the street from the Capitol (because it's seen as demeaning to do the calls directly from your Congressional office) and members of the House and the Senate spend a ridiculous amount of time there. The report suggested multiple hours each day on average, just focused on raising money for their re-election campaign. It's really quite incredible.

The folks over at MapLight recently used Federal Elections Commission data on the 2012 elections to work out just how much it costs to win a seat in Congress:

• House members, on average, each raised $1,689,580, an average of $2,315 every day during the 2012 cycle.
• Senators, on average, each raised $10,476,451, an average of $14,351 every day during the 2012 cycle.