Just wondering if anybody has any experience or links to sites that go into the issue.

How much money does one need in a campaign for US representative?

$50,000?
$500,000?
$5,000,000?

Help, please. Thanks.

I imagine it depends on where you live. If you're running for Congress in a rural district in Mississippi, for instance, you wouldn't need to spend nearly as much as if you were running in a densely populated district in California.

How about rural Eastern Washington?

Very large geographic region. No cities. Few towns.

It's the high figure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 4Oct2.html

This is from 2004, and it names $2mil just for starters. Anyone think the cost went down since then?

edit: Tried so hard not to be sarcastic about how great it is that all this speech is going on in our congressional campaigns. But just couldn't quite resist the impulse. Gee, love that speech. Soooo much speech. $5 MILLION DOLLARS of speech. Hurray for speech.

While I don't know about things over there. I imagine an advertisement in Philadelphia is a bit more expensive than one in Ephrata.

I mean a 30 s radio ad on our biggest AM/FM station cost $20. Maybe it would cost millions to run a campaign here...

It only takes a little under 2000 signatures to get on the ballet. That takes about 10 days of work to get, with a filing fee of $10. And then here in WA we have a "Top Two, open primary" where everyone can vote for everyone... who ever the top 2 vote getters are, move on to the general election, regardless of party affiliation and no body else is allowed on the ballet.... which makes it easy to get the support of other groups cause their guy gets booted out. The parties hate our system.... so I figure it must be good.

Might have spoke too soon. This link below is from 2008 says the average is 1.1million. Of course, this average includes unopposed incumbents and other safe seats. I don't think a non incumbent could expect to be competitive without raising a million or two even in relatively inexpensive media environments.

Basically, it's primarily about how much tv ads cost in a given area. But to challenge an incumbent you have to spend a lot just to have your name known and your candidacy taken seriously.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/11 ... e-and.html

You can run for practically nothing. It's only if you want to get anywhere, even in WA, that you're gonna have to raise and spend a pack of money.

I don't really handle our advertising, but we run tv ads through our story a couple times a year.... I'll look it up tomorrow, post how much they cost...

Don't know if this will help but the FEC publishes campaign receipts, disbursements, cash on hand and debt for each candidate who raises at least $5,000. Here is a link for the stats in your district (WA-4, right?): http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/HSR ... on_yr=2010

Depending on the state, you must be either richer than you, or in more populated areas, much richer than you. But good luck.

1.5 to 2 million