$pecial Price Tag thanks to aunuld...

[bridgit]

Big Money: Initiative campaigns hugely costly

"When all is said and done, the amount spent on Tuesday's election in California will easily surpass the more than $241 million that John Kerry spent running for president last year, and could even top the $306 million that President Bush spent to win re-election."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/09/BAG3JFL3CG1.DTL

[CountAllVotes]

1. this little game yesteday cost $300,000,000 FYI

I think however, this "little" game is up.

GO HOME GROPENATOR, GO HOME!

:dem: :kick:

[bridgit]

2. outrageous display of opulence @ the expense of calif taxpayers...

:thumbsdown: time for republicans to go :thumbsup:

[Patchuli]

3. I think this little pr*ck should pay it back too!

That's obscene! I'm happy the drug companies pissed so much away and lost! bbbuhhhuuuwahahahahaaaa

Seriously, he should go pimp himself to pay it back!

[bridgit]

4. that sounds right to me...

:hi:

[Journeyman]

5. The election cost somewhere around $40 to $60 million. . .

that's money out of state coffers needed to prepare the ballots and hold the vote.
The $300 million+ figure is the total amount spent on advertising, private polls, GOTV efforts, etc. Since that money was given by corporations and unions, as well as the individual citizens interested in influencing the outcome, it's not actually "taxpayer" money. Still in all, it was a hefty sum to waste on an election that should have never occurred.

[bridgit]

6. I'm not about to break it down 'barney style' but to suggest that...

your numbers are woefully low & unfocused when you consider that one (1) meeting in a hotel room between ENRON execs & Schwarzenegger has already cost California billions of lost dollars. Money spent elsewhere is money frittered away. While even a $20,000,000 disparity such as the one you allude to, is far too much to spend on the ego driven agenda of a self promoting, steroid riddled misogynist republican imo.