Big voting money and campaign money

Floridians head to the polls Tuesday after an expensive campaign season.

Accordingly ballot paperFlorida had the second-most ballot campaign spending in the country, ahead only of California.

The two most expensive of the 159 ballot boxes nationwide Amendment 3 And Amendment 4 in Florida.

If passed, Amendment 3 would legalize marijuana for all adults 21 and over, while Amendment 4 would incorporate abortion rights into Florida’s constitution.

research group Open Secrets He reported that of the more than $417 million raised for ballot measures across the country, $125 million was raised in support or opposition of Florida’s Amendment 3 and $85 million was raised for or against Amendment 4.

Patrick Rickert, associate professor of political science at Rollins College, said: This expenditure is unusual.

“Floridians are no strangers to most campaign spending because the competitiveness of the race is what determines campaign spending,” he said. “Florida, when it was a nationally swing state, saw much more spending, but because these ballot initiatives require passage of a super majority, they are now more competitive, even at a time when Florida has become less competitive, at least from a partisan basis.”

Although ballot measures attract large amounts of contributions, Rickert said congressional races also attract large amounts of money from out of state, especially if it is expected to be a close election or potentially determine control of the House or Senate.

But as Florida becomes more Republican and less competitive statewide, less money is coming into campaigns, he said. The Senate race here, for example, is between incumbent Republican Rick Scott and former U.S. Representative and Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powel.

“Senate race in Florida this year ninth most expensive “There are 33 Senate races in total, but nowhere near the amount spent in the much more competitive Senate races in Texas, Montana or Ohio,” he said.

Increase ads

The vast majority of money spent on ballot measures is used for advertising.

But there is a limit to how much can be spent on traditional advertising for campaigns such as television or radio, Rickert said.

“Eventually you reach the physical limit of the amount of mail you can send,” he said. “So campaigns have increasingly turned to new media sources like text messaging, social media, online advertising, and we’ve seen probably the most noticeable increase for almost everyone.”

Accordingly RobokillerAmericans received 15 billion political text messages across the country in 2022, a midterm election year.

Florida ranked fourth The most political texts of 2022 with 1.09 billion texts.

“Early estimates say it will be about three times as many by 2024,” Rickert said.

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Central Florida Public Media

Text message ads can be effective because people who receive political texts are generally more likely to vote, Rickert said.

He adds that it is also advantageous in terms of cost.

“A lot of these texts are asking for some kind of contribution from you, and we actually see them raising money because they are so cheap,” he said. “Typically a single person can send about a thousand of these messages in an hour, and even if one or two people donate $20, it would be cost-effective to send these messages.”

The amount of money a campaign spends on advertising depends on the location and competitiveness of the race, Rickert said.

“In some places, like California or Florida, it’s more expensive to buy airtime,” he said. “The Montana Senate race, which is not a place where it’s very expensive to advertise, is the third most expensive Senate race in the country because it’s always been pretty close.”

What does big spending mean for Florida?

While affordable advertising options like texts mean bombarding voters with messages on their phones, Rickets said the money spent in this election shows people see possibilities in Florida ballot measures.

“I think a lot of people who don’t live in Florida think that spending money on these initiatives can create opportunities for people who might want to invest in Florida or live here later,” he said.

But Rickert said more money doesn’t guarantee the measure will pass or a candidate will win.

“The social science research on whether more money actually leads to electoral success is really dark,” he said. “We find that the campaign that raises the most money and spends the most money tends to win. “But that doesn’t mean that money was actually what caused the victory.”

Rickert explains that popular candidates are more likely to raise more money, “so popular candidates can win.”

When it comes to election spending, Rickert said there are two types of spending.

“There are expenses made by candidates and their candidate committees,” he said. “And then there’s what’s known as independent expenses. “The campaign finance donation limits or disclosure requirements for these independent expenditures are not the same.”

Rickert said that the ‘Dark Money’ concern comes into play at this point.

“It’s unclear who’s spending the money, and that’s where a lot of the concern about the amount of money in campaigns comes from.”

These concerns are often found in national races like the Senate, he said.

“We haven’t seen much in these state constitutional amendments where it’s pretty clear who supports each side,” he said.

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