Can Political Campaign Money boost local economies?

As we roll into yet another political season, like they ever stop, a few questions come to mind over campaign costs and local economies. Every year the election cycle gets longer and more intense. There seems to be important races all the time. The fact that the 2012 Presidential election could arguably be stated began right after the mid term election of 2010 says something about our government. Has government turned into nothing but one big campaign race? If so and we, the public, are subjected to the nonsense of political campaigns, flyer after flyer in our mailboxes, ads on television and even spam flooding our email accounts and Twitter feeds, shouldn't we see some kind of benefit? Besides the some what lacking jobs the eventual elected official does. Campaigns are huge operations that encompass a lot of cash, so what could this mean for the public?

The amount of materials and advertising that goes into political campaigns should spur some local economies, even if only temporary. In these hard times many businesses and individuals are looking for work, as well as business. To get a scope of how much money can be spent on these elections, lets take a look at Linda McMahon's republican run for Connecticut Senator in 2010. McMahon spent a whopping $50 million dollars on the campaign! She ended up losing to Richard Blumenthal (D). In the end McMahon did win one title, she spent the most money on a political campaign and lost in history (Keating). On a side note this fact is pretty cool, meaning that money can't always buy an election!

So what does this all have to do with a local economy? Well if McMahon, who sent out flyers out to the point of ad nauseum, focus buying all her political materials in the state of Connecticut or surrounding areas it would benefit the very people she wants to represent. Now a days it seems that only the very rich can run office due to the amount of money needed to run a successful campaign and get your name out there. So if the politicians are willing to pay all this money to run for a office in the United States, shouldn't they at least run on using American products, materials and jobs? This can be applied to local elections, district elections, state elections and especially National elections. I say especially national elections because those candidates have an entire country of resources they should use to run their campaigns, no more shirts, or mugs from China to raise campaign funds. Lets keep American Politics, as crazy as it is, a profit for Americans!

In the election storm of the next year, also known as the 2012 Presidential race, look out for campaign raising efforts that don't benefit American's. Try to influence candidates to support local business to supply they're campaigns, for example use a local printing company for mailers or local production companies for television commercials. There is so much money in political campaigns, all used to convince the public a particular person is right for the job but don't actions speak louder than words?

If your curious Linda McMahon has announced that she will be running for the Republican nominee in the race for Senator of Connecticut in 2012. This seat is currently held by Senator Lieberman a once Democrat, now Independent, who is retiring. It will be interesting to see how much money she will spend on this campaign...