After Tuesday’s primary election, I have a modest proposal that could save taxpayers money, spare candidates months of handshaking and eliminate the inconvenience of actually going to the polls. Next time, why don’t we just look at the campaign finance reports and declare whoever raised the most money the winner?
Think of the savings.
No early voting. No Election Day. No campaign signs sprouting from every vacant lot like political crabgrass. No mailers arriving daily to remind us that Candidate A loves freedom, Candidate B has a family and Candidate C once stood next to a tractor.
Just open the spreadsheet, sort the “Contributions” column from largest to smallest and swear somebody in. Tuesday provided some compelling evidence for my new system.
Take the Marion County Commission District 2 race. Mike Crimi reported $172,323.90 in monetary contributions. Matt Cretul reported $48,900. Brien Weidemiller reported $33,056.69.
And wouldn’t you know it, Crimi finished first.
He received 7,610 votes, compared with 4,946 for Cretul and 4,265 for Weidemiller. Cost per vote ratio: Crimi, $22.64; Cretul, $9.89; Weidemiller, $7.75.
Apparently the voters insisted on showing up Tuesday just to confirm what the fundraising report had been trying to tell us for months.
The School Board offered additional research material. In District 3, incumbent Eric Cummings reported $15,744 in monetary contributions. Challenger Steve Swett reported $4,839.30.
Cummings won with 35,933 votes, or 56%, to Swett’s 27,727. Cost per vote ratio: Cummings, 44 cents; Swett, 17 cents.
Democracy has spoken. Coincidentally, democracy appears to have checked the bank balance first.
Then there is School Board District 5. Sarah James reported $44,100 in monetary contributions. Donny Barber reported $8,822.44. Ualthan Bigby reported $3,794.32. James finished first Tuesday with 31,511 votes, or 49%. Barber received 22,577 and Bigby 9,989. Because James fell just short of a majority, she and Barber now advance to November. Cost per vote ratio: James, $1.40; Barber, 39 cents; Bigby, 38 cents.
If Marion County is merely the laboratory, Florida’s Republican governor’s race was the full-scale clinical trial.
Byron Donalds’ campaign and affiliated political operation entered the primary having raised more than $100 million. One analysis put the broader operation above $111 million heading into Election Day, while his Republican rivals had nowhere near the same financial firepower.
Donalds then won the Republican nomination with about 48% of the vote, easily defeating the rest of an 11-candidate field.
Again, Floridians spent an entire Tuesday filling in bubbles to arrive at a conclusion that could have been reached months ago.
Of course, campaign money does not literally buy votes. That would be an outrageous oversimplification. So perhaps we should keep elections after all. They preserve the quaint notion that ordinary citizens decide who governs them.
A Concerned Ballot Budget Analyst
