Political campaigns often go big or go home when it comes to fundraising and spending. The 2012 presidential campaigns set records for highest expenditures. The candidates spent approximately $1.8 billion combined. But where did all the money go?
By examining the different campaign spending strategies, we get an excellent idea of each campaign’s priorities. The Huffington Post broke down the “figures from the Obama and Romney campaigns, each candidate’s respective Victory Fund, the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee and their respective independent expenditure and coordinated expenditure arms.” (See numbers below.)
Perhaps the most significant spending difference between Republicans and Democrats in 2012 was the expenditure on payroll. Democrats spent roughly 7% of their entire budget on field personnel. The Republicans spent not quite 4%. Democrat field staffers were paid less than their Republican counterparts, allowing the Obama Campaign to hire field staffers at a ratio of almost 2.5:1. It is quite clear that the Obama Campaign stressed personal voter contact, making the campaign more accessible to the average voter. Equally as obvious is the fact that this strategy paid off. This is a clear example of the importance of running effective grassroots campaigns.
See for yourself: the breakdown of top 2012 campaign expenditures:
Total Expenditure
- Republicans: $885.6 million
- Democrats: $919.3 million
Payroll
- Republicans: $33.3 million
- Democrats: $63.2 million
Television/Radio Ads (including production and placement costs)
- Republicans: $270 million
- Democrats: $420 million
Online Ads
- Republicans: $100.6 million
- Democrats: $118.1 million
Telemarketing
- Republicans: $74.5 million
- Democrats: $35.2 million
Polling
- Republicans: $19.3 million
- Democrats: $32.1 million
Other important takeaways:
Republicans spent approximately 41% of their funds on creation and placement of multimedia adds (higher according to some estimates). The Democrats spent roughly 58%.
The Republicans relied more heavily on telemarketing than Democrats, spending around 8% as opposed to not quite 4%.
The Democrats however relied more on polling than their opponents, allocating almost 3.5% as opposed to the Republicans just over 2%.