Tuesday is the general election for the 4th Middlesex Senate seat. I concur with the common wisdom – Jim Marzilli is going to run away with it. Heck, even I’m voting for him, and I ran against him three years ago. Both of his opponents are trying to roll back the progress on gay rights. I may disagree with Marzilli on fiscal issues, but he’s the better choice for the job.
Before this election disappears from the public eye, it’s worth taking a look closer look at the Democratic primary. The post-primary election fund filing deadline is passed, and we can see how much was spent. The online reports are with the Office of Campaign Finance.
I noted some trends in the pre-primary filings last month. The trends continued, with a few items of note:
- Marzilli gave another $10k to his campaign, for a total of $20k in self funding.
- Natale loaned $19,800 to his campaign. He had loaned himself money for previous campaigns, and has a debt of $45k.
- Murphy continued to spend a lot of money on consultants.
- Donnelly has plenty of money to run a House campaign if he chooses.
| total available | total expenditures | votes | spent per vote | |
| Marzilli (D) | $113,362.00 | $106,947.66 | 6631 | $16.13 |
| Donnelly (D) | $134,081.84 | $120,816.77 | 4438 | $27.22 |
| Murphy (D) | $172,577.29 | $137,063.25 | 3574 | $38.35 |
| Natale (D) | $69,184.56 | $67,310.51 | 2599 | $25.90 |
| Cangiamila (R) | $11,563.57 | $10,337.88 | 1071 | $9.65 |
| Fallon (C) | $1,305.00 | $1,433.17 | no | primary |
The available funds is the candidate’s starting balance plus what they raised during the campaign.
The numbers pretty much speak for themselves, don’t they? When you win, your numbers look better. And when you lose, you wonder if you should have just mailed a check for $40 to every voter and asked them to vote for you – it would have been just as effective.