Candidates in Louisiana’s Senate race last year spent $37.9 million, making it one of the most expensive Senate contests in the country. USA Today reports special interest groups spent another $26.9 million, bringing the total tab to $64.8 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
“We just blew through what is the equivalent of three barn-burners,” says Pearson Cross, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “There’s never been a race [in Louisiana] where spending was remotely as high as this one.”
The race, considered one of the most competitive in the country, ended when Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy easily defeated Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu in a Dec. 6 runoff. Conservative groups pumped millions into efforts to help Cassidy and retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, a tea party favorite who finished third behind Cassidy and Landrieu in the primary on Nov. 4.
Landrieu spent about $19.9 million during the election cycle, according to year-end reports recently filed with the Federal Election Commission. She had $62,629 remaining on Dec. 31, the report showed. Cassidy spent $14.6 million and had $892,455 left, while Maness spent $2.9 million and had $17,123 remaining.
Louisiana’s Senate race ranked fourth in spending by candidates, behind Kentucky ($54 million), Georgia ($45 million) and Minnesota ($40 million). It ranked seventh in total spending, according the Center for Responsive Politics. North Carolina’s Senate race between Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis was No. 1 for total spending, at $120.2 million.
The amount spent by Louisiana’s Senate candidates in last year’s race was more than double the $17.4 million spent by candidates in the state’s 2010 Senate race. In that election, Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon spent $4.7 million in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Republican Sen. David Vitter, who spent $12.7 million. The Melancon-Vitter race didn’t go to a runoff, and candidates and special interest groups began spending money earlier in the 2014 race, political experts say. Read the full story.
