What are the factors that influence the amount of money spent running for elections?

Answer 1

In the modern age, it has become increasingly more expensive to run an effective political campaign, and since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advocacy, that cost has sky-rocketed. And as competition has intensified, so has political spending. The key expenditures involve making sure the candidate's message gets out to the widest possible audience. Decisions on spending will be influenced by how the race is going (what the polls say, reactions of the media to the candidate's positions, size of crowds at his/her events, etc). Resources may be directed specifically towards one part of the electorate, if it seems that group is wavering in their support, or if it seems that a certain undecided group might yet be persuaded (for example, a candidate may be doing poorly with Hispanic voters, and may direct resources to creating a better and more favorable impression).

It all starts with hiring a staff (political strategists, publicists, aides, security, office staff, etc) and renting offices in various places, so that volunteers can participate and so that the campaign has central places to co-ordinate the candidate's message. It also means creating interesting campaign literature (buttons, hats, signs, etc) and finding new ways to disseminate your materials. Other expenses include hiring outdoor stadiums or other venues for your events; renting planes or buses or other campaign vehicles to get you to where you need to go in order to make regular campaign appearances; doing on-going publicity about your views, activities, and accomplishments; having an up-to-date presence on social media (a webmaster for your site, a staff to regularly update it, etc); and generating strategies to reach different audiences depending on their age, ethnicity, and top issues. And let's not forget that one 30-second advertisement on TV in the larger cities can cost thousands of dollars (depending on when it airs), and an entire schedule of ads requires an even bigger sum of money. This means campaigns must continue to come up with more cash for spreading their own message and raising doubts about their opponents. It also means that even if you are a person with great ideas and a desire to run for office, unless you have access to lots of money, your ideas may never reach the people who might want to vote for you.