Election Money

Posted by The Voice Of Shelby on Aug 13, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments

Elections, in general, are about money. Whoever spends the most money has the best chance of winning. This has been true for decades and it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. The proof is in the numbers.

For example, in the race for Macomb County Commissioner (6^th District) James Carabelli, according to the Macomb County Clerk’s Office (as of July 15, 2010), received over $21,500 in 82 political contributions which gave him a clear advantage over his competition. More than half of his contributions were from outside the district and he did accept PAC money. Conversely, his main opponent, Theresa Toia, received $3,750; many of her contributions were also outside the district. It is clear from the difference in the amount of money collected that Carabelli had a profound impact on the results. So with so much money going into Carabelli, one has to ask themselves why so much money for a race that was local?

Looking comparatively at another race in Macomb County, the Democratic Primary for Macomb County Commissioner (District 13), Cary Torrice collected $5,102.20 from 28 different contributions, while her opponent, Jeffery Sprys, collected 4,680.00. Both of these candidates combined didn’t collect as much as Carabelli in District 6.

Now that the primary is over, the race for the 6^th District is virtually over, as well. I fully expect James Carabelli to win in November, it will be curious to see what the contribution reports look like in November.

Sources:

Macomb County Campaign Finance Reporting: Carabelli Toia Sprys Torrice

Early Warnings

$4.95

“Early Warnings” is a thematic and all-too-relevant collection of songs concerning war, human rights abuses and the spirit required to transcend these dysfunctions that were selected by the pioneering “women’s music” and political activist Holly Near from two of her previous albums, “Watch Out! (1984) and “Sky Dances” (1989). Both of those records were originally released on Holly’s own much-misse…