It’s Not Cheap To Run For Office

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi voters are two weeks away from hitting the polls for the Congressional elections and local chancery judiciary elections.

Although time is ticking down, campaign costs are adding up.

As you can imagine, it’s not cheap to run for office.

Depending on the position or level a candidate is running for, depends on how much campaign money is spent, where it goes, and how it’s raised.

“If you don’t have money, you really don’t have much of a campaign these days,” says Dr. Melissa Smith.

Putting out all those signs and ads takes cash.

Smith is an associate professor at MUW and her specialty is following the money.

And there’s a lot of it.

“I think Chris McDaniel has raised more than $5 million and Cindy Hyde-Smith has probably raised almost about $3 million and then you have Mike Espy, who maybe his fundraising has, you know, been a little slower to come, but it has been really piling up a little bit more recently.”

That pile of cash sometimes comes from grassroots donors, but political PACS provide the bucks for big ticket items.

“Most of what your money is going for would be your media expenses, so you know, it costs money to produce television ads. It costs money to air those television ads. It costs money to produce signs. It costs money to do billboards. It costs money to do radio spots. It costs money travel around.”

Some of that money pays the candidate’s campaign staff.

Judge races also come with expenses, but that cash can go farther because the message doesn’t have to.

“If you’re running for a local chancery position or something like that, you might spend a few thousand dollars, but you’re not going to approach, probably $1 million, if you’re just running, you know, something that’s a very local kind of race.”

WCBI-TV General Manager Derek Rogers says local candidates usually don’t buy as many TV ads as state candidates, but says this year, the station has seen most of the judicial candidates do TV advertising.

“TV, radio, and digital is still your best way on a longer form method to get your message out. They are about what your issues are, what your beliefs are, what your stance on different positions are.”

Smith says statewide candidates are also putting a lot of emphasis on social media, which means you have to pay people to do that too.

She also says if there’s a runoff for the special Senate election, then campaign expenses will grow even more.