Chafee defied struggle of self-funded candidates

Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee has been widely noted for his rare feat of winning an election after proposing a tax hike. His victory on Tuesday stands out for another reason. At a time when self-funded candidates fared poorly nationwide, Chafee (who poured about $1.6 million into his own campaign) defied that trend.

Chafee’s contributions put him in the same ballpark with his best-financed rival, Democrat Frank Caprio, who was also backed significantly by the Democratic Governors Association. Republican John Robitaille had a lot less in his war chest, and still almost won.

One suspects Moderate Ken Block might have fared a lot better if he had Ross Perot-style money, but as the Center for Responsive Politics reports, self-funders had a bad time of it on Election Day:

Of the 58 federal-level candidates who contributed at least a half-million dollars to their own campaigns, fewer than one in five won the seat they had sought, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis finds. It’s proof that not all political money is created equal, and that even the most wealthy candidates are often tripped up by factors ranging from poor name recognition to lousy campaign structures to a lack of mass appeal. 

No one is more emblematic of self-financing futilty than McMahon, the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment who, despite pumping more than $46.6 million into her U.S. Senate campaign through mid-October, will not be representing Connecticut in Washington, D.C., come January. McMahon, a Republican, lost to Democratic Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, himself just one of 11 self-financiers nationwide to win federal office this election cycle.

McMahon, however, has company: Of the eight federal-level candidates this cycle to contribute more than $3.5 million of their own money to their campaigns, seven lost. Only Republican Ron Johnson, who defeated U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), prevailed.