Governor Cuomo recently filed his campaign finance documents, and the numbers are, quite frankly, staggering. Since the beginning of his campaign, Governor Cuomo has raised over $45 million for his campaign and spent over $8 million this month. $76,000 came from an affiliate of a company he used to work for, which will does not help the beleaguered governor who is already under attack for corruption. The fact that he is spending so much money on a race in which he is beating his opponent by at least twenty points in all of the polls shows how ridiculous our political system is getting. Running for office should not require being a millionaire or being a friend of a millionaire, it should only require being capable and willing to serve the people. Cuomo's outrageous spending may be an effort to build his base for the 2016 presidential election, in which he has hinted that he will be running.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/albany-politics/cuomo-spending-more-than-400000-a-day-on-campaign-20141024
Sadly, it remains true that money is power. With money, a candidate can hire people to do the dirty work for him/her. It seems that Cuomo has more money than Astorino, who only has 1 million dollars while Cuomo still has 15 million dollars. Thus, with that extra boost, it makes sense that Cuomo will have the lead, and likely win this election. Based on Chapter 10 of our American Government textbook, you need to raise and spend money in the billions. Cuomo not only has to build a base, but also raise much more money than he already has in order to win the presidential nomination and election.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Catherine. From the textbook reading this Friday, we learned that the money spent on the presidential election in 2004 and 2008 more than doubled. This holds true for people running for any position. Money is required for the person to get their name out there and to the people.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, money does equate power in our society. This one of the many reasons why we need campaign finance reform. Large amounts of money that go into running a successful and victorious campaign requires a lot of money,which ends up hurting the candidates who may just have the necessary skills and ideas to run government more effectively.
ReplyDeleteWell you can't expect to win without spending money. TV Commercials, Radio Ads, Newspaper Ads, and public appearances all come at a price; something we have experienced with the election simulation.
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