The final campaign finance numbers are in for the 5th District race, and it looks like Tom Perriello just buried Virgil Goode in money. Goode spent $1.8M, while Perriello spent $1.7M, but the difference was made up by outside groups. Various political committees spent $150k on behalf of Goode, compared to $1.2M on behalf of Perriello. The final tally is $3M to $1.9M, or a 50% advantage to Perriello. He got twice as much money into this district as I thought he could manage.
The crazy thing is that Goode didn’t spend all of his money: He still had $200k come November 24. He’s a notorious cheapskate, but I didn’t know he was that cocky. What the FEC doesn’t provide yet is a breakdown of his income and expenses after October 15, so it’s not clear to me whether a) he raised a lot of money after election day, planning for a recount b) he actually had a lot more on hand come election day, but spent it gearing up for a recount or c) a combination of the two is the case. My suspicion is that he didn’t get close to spending all of his money, because while the rest of us figured out that Perriello had a fighting chance about ten days before the election, you could have knocked Goode over with a feather come about 11pm on November 4th.
Waldo, why in the world are you promoting the lie that Tom Perriello outspent Virgil Goode? I know that you were of absolutely no use to the effort to elect Tom Perriello during the campaign, but can you at least get over your sour grapes over being wrong (not one prediction you’ve made about this race came true, from Tom’s fund raising to his overall electoral performance) and focus on the reality: Virgil Goode out spent Tom Perriello. Did outside groups make the difference? Yes. Correct your title. Say something like “Democrats outspend Republicans by 50% in VA-05.”
Your comment is wrong in so many ways that I hardly know where to begin. So I won’t.
NWJ… you are not giving Perriello the credit he deserves. Outside money doesn’t just fall from the sky. Perriello had to show that he could be a credible candidate on his own before any outside money showed up. Perriello definitely deserves the credit for the $3M spent by him and on his behalf.
We all supported Perriello (Waldo included) in a very wide variety of ways, and this built up into a winning coalition. We should be proud of our efforts, not sniping our own.