Getting your money's worth

Yesterday the Democrats threw another $730,000 into the governor's race, asking the state for a once in a lifetime hand recount. They also sued in the state supreme court to require that previously invalidated ballots be reviewed again, even though state law prohibits it.

Meanwhile, the Public Disclosure filings show Democrat Christine Gregoire has spent $5,601,928.04 on her campaign. Republican Dino Rossi has spent $5,675,868.02. Libertarian Ruth Bennett has spent a whopping $2,703.98 on the race.

As of the recount Rossi, with 1,372,484 votes, is 42 votes ahead of Gregoire, who has 1,372,442 votes. Bennett, of course, registered only 63,415 votes, or 2.26%.

So what's the big deal to Libertarians? Bennett got trounced, right?

WRONG! Bennett didn't spend enough money!

Based on the above figures the Gregoire campaign spent $4.08 per vote. The hand recount costs will bring the total to roughly $4.61 per vote. Meanwhile Rossi spent $4.12 for each of his votes.

At the same time each of Bennett's votes cost her a mere $.0426 cents. That's right; the decimal point is all the way to the far left.

In terms of simple math, 936,114 votes (1/3 of the total plus 1) might have cost the Bennett campaign a mere $39,878.44. Obviously there is the marginal return factor (i.e., the more you spend the less you get), but these numbers suggest a phenomenon that the LP needs to consider.

Dollar for dollar, our money is worth more than theirs.