Biggest Election Night Losers: Self-funded Candidates

Across the nation, the morning after Election Night 2010 is littered with the obliterated political dreams of really, really rich people.


Of the 58 federal-level candidates who contributed at least a half-million dollars to their own campaigns, fewer than one in five won the seat they had sought, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis finds.

It's proof that not all political money is created equal, and that even the most wealthy candidates are often tripped up by factors ranging from poor name recognition to lousy campaign structures to a lack of mass appeal.


Linda McMahon

No one is more emblematic of self-financing futility than McMahon, the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment who, despite pumping more than $46.6 million into her U.S. Senate campaign through mid-October, will not be representing Connecticut in Washington, D.C., come January. McMahon, a Republican, lost to Democratic Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, himself just one of 11 self-financiers nationwide to win federal office this election cycle.

McMahon, however, has company: Of the eight federal-level candidates this cycle to contribute more than $3.5 million of their own money to their campaigns, seven lost. Only Republican Ron Johnson, who defeated U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), prevailed.

Greene, a Democrat who spent nearly $24 million of his own wealth on a U.S. Senate bid in Florida, lost in a partisan primary to Rep. Kendrick Meek, who himself lost last night in the state's general election to Republican Marco Rubio.

Jeff Greene



Fiorina, for her part, failed to successfully parlay her experience as Hewlett-Packard's former chief executive into a U.S. Senate victory over incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) -- despite Fiorina, a Republican, spending more than $5.5 million of her own money through mid-October.

Meanwhile, just four out of 32 federal-level candidates who spent more than $1 million of their own money through mid-October ultimately won their race: Johnson, Blumenthal, Republican House candidate Scott Rigell in Virginia and Republican House candidate William Flores in Texas.

Meg Whitman


And that's not counting Republican Meg Whitman, a gubernatorial candidate in California, who spent more of her own money on a single race than any U.S. political candidate in the nation's history -- at any level. (the Center does not track state-level races.) Former California Gov. Jerry Brown beat Whitman anyway to reclaim the seat he occupied during the 1970s and 1980s.

Historically, self-financed candidates have had limited success at the federal level. Most of the candidates who've spent the most during the past two decades have lost, the Center finds.