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Candidate Expenses
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Candidate Expenses in the 2003 Rockville Election
R. A. Schrack

Candidate expenditures in the 2003 election are as reported to the city by the candidates on their December 4, 2003 final financial report. Also shown are the 2001 expenditures for comparison.

 

2003
$

2001
$

2003
Votes

2003
$/V

2001
$/V

Larry Giammo

14,371

32,531

3736

5.25

6.50

Russ Hamill

4,398

na

2332

1.86

na

Bob Dorsey

1,416

4,494

3700

0.38

0.98

John Hall

8,195

7,391

4042

2.03

1.69

Susan Hoffman

6,144

9,275

3511

1.75

2.16

Phyllis Marcuccio

10,205

na

3302

3.09

na

Travis Nelson

1,845

na

1486

1.24

na

Anne Robbins

9,467

9,052

3624

2.61

2.12

Harry Thomas

887

3,065

1619

0.55

1.27

Lih Young

267

191

 602

0.44

0.23

Comparison is also made in the above table of the Dollars per Vote for the candidates in 2001 and 2003. In some cases less was spent in 2003 than in 2001 without affecting the relative standing in the votes obtained.

The figure shows the Votes obtained for Dollars per vote spent by the various candidates. It is tempting but wrong to assert that the data show that more dollars per vote produces more votes. This theory would be supported by the diagonal dashed line which is a fit to all candidates except Giammo and Dorsey.

A better theory rests on the observation that the five incumbents all had vote totals within 7% of the incumbent average. Dorsey had 10 years of voter acceptance to back him regardless of how much he spent. Giammo probably spent more than he had to because of the last minute challenge by Hamill. For a newcomer Marcuccio did extremely well, whether more money would have put her on the council is hard to say.

The Council candidates having the three lowest vote totals spent little on their campaigns but it is unlikely that greater expenditures alone would have improved their vote totals. There is no universal key to understanding the relationship of money spent to votes received in this election. Money alone was not the controlling factor; the record, campaigning ability, and campaign organization must be examined for each candidate to explain of their vote total.