Wealthy candidates, many from the business world, spent more than $500 million of their own money running for office this year. They don't have a lot to show for it.
Meg Whitman, the former eBay (EBAY) chief executive officer who failed in her bid for California governor, contributed $141.6 million from her personal fortune, the most for a single race in U.S. history. Ex-Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) leader Carly Fiorina, the Republican who sought a Senate seat from California, and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Linda McMahon, a Republican who ran for the Senate from Connecticut, were also among the wealthy, self-financed losers on Nov. 2.
This year's 58 self-funded federal candidates—those seeking seats in the U.S. House and Senate and contributing at least $500,000 to their campaigns—spent a combined $159 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. At the local level, self-funded candidates who ran for governor and other state offices spent even more—$344.3 million, says the National Institute on Money in State Politics. (The center and the institute are nonpartisan groups that track political money.)
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