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Politics
Campaign cash cow carved up
Businesses in states with first-in-the-nation status for primaries and caucuses used to be able to count on big bucks. But bottom lines will suffer with next year's election jockeying.
Associated Press
Published July 19, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The presidential contest is assumed to be a cash cow for early-voting states. If so, it probably will produce skim milk at best. The fluid nature of the 2008 campaign, with candidates scattered across a larger field of competition, is making for an unpredictable balance sheet for towns where hotels and pizza shops fill up for a political event while police overtime budgets stretch thin providing security. The contenders are certainly spending millions - somewhere. Yet their strategies shift with the winds, taking big dollars with them and leaving nothing certain except that things will get busy near the day of decision. The Iowa Republican Party, for one, probably took a multimillion-dollar hit when two of the three top GOP candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, decided to sit out an August straw poll that is a prime source of cash to help the party pay for the caucuses. Giuliani's campaign estimated it would have cost its operations $3-million to compete. Federal figures show that 10 Democratic candidates spent $4.5-million on Iowa businesses and staff in the last primary. That is a fraction of the benefits estimated by boosters who liberally interpret the value of indirect spending. Advertising, a huge expense for the candidates in every competitive state, often is produced far away. The economic benefits are illusive in South Carolina. The state is taking over operation of the primary voting from the parties, at a cost to taxpayers of $2.2-million, not including security for the candidates. Columbia Mayor Bob Coble estimated the GOP debate last month generated $4-million locally, half the economic effect of a home college football game at the University of South Carolina. "We had people spending a lot of money on hotels, food, catering," Coble said. "Every candidate has a party." Restaurant owners like these events. "It brings people that have big wallets and even bigger egos and they can fill up a bar quickly," said Mike Evans, general manager at Liberty Tap Room & Grill. Such windfalls tend to be here today, gone tomorrow. College of Charleston economist Frank Hefner, looking back at the 2000 GOP debate held on campus, said little long-term benefit came of it and far less than if the school's basketball team made it into the NCAA's Final Four. A political gathering is "not even like a sports event or cultural event because there's not much infrastructure that's built around it that stays there," he said. Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida are planning their contests in mid to late January 2008. Hard on their heels are contests in 15 to 20 states, all on Feb. 5. Fast Facts: Iowa When: Jan. 14. Who pays: State parties pay for caucuses, with taxpayers covering local security. Who gains: The 2004 caucuses, when only the Democratic nomination was in play, were worth about $75-million to the Iowa economy. New Hampshire When: Held seven days before any other primary in the nation, by law. Who pays: Taxpayers cover the primary costs, security. Who gains: In the 2000 primary campaigns and media spent about $83-million. South Carolina When: Jan. 29 for Democrats, tentatively Feb. 2 for GOP. Who pays: Taxpayers pay for the balloting, security. Who gains: Most of the spending is on TV ad buys.
[Last modified July 19, 2007, 06:50:19]
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