The Legislature is currently considering several bills that would change voting laws in Oklahoma. Courtesy/KWTV
A Frontier analysis of campaign spending and election results reveals money doesn’t always win an election.
The data suggest big spending does not always lead to a winning campaign. This proved to be true in many primary races, including the Republican gubernatorial race, which will go into a runoff election Aug. 28.
Some candidates’ campaigns that spent the most might be little-known to most people. For example, gubernatorial Republican candidate Gary Richardson spent almost $68 per vote and ended near the bottom of the race. Meanwhile Mick Cornett, who finished at the top of the Republican primary, spent about $12 per vote, the analysis shows.
Even candidates with high name recognition in Oklahoma, such as Republican Todd Lamb, spent among the highest but did not get enough votes to make it to the runoff.
To analyze the cost per vote, we looked at how much candidates spent and how many votes they received. The total amount raised by each candidate was not taken into consideration, as some candidates start their heavy spending prior to the general elections and many candidates used their own money to fund their campaign.
A couple of more notes about the data: We included all spending by a campaign — however the latest campaign finance filings were filed on June 18, so the data might not include some late spending. The data also does not include independent expenditures by groups outside of the candidate’s campaign, which can significantly impact the outcome of a race.
Without further delay, here are the results:
