Election Spending Put Millions in the Pockets of Private Firms
WASHINGTON — From coast to coast, political strategists, media consultants, lawyers and pollsters earned millions of dollars in the nation's most expensive presidential election in history.
Olsen & Shuvalov, the direct marketing firm in Austin, Texas, that was founded by Karl Rove, President Bush's political strategist, received $34 million from the Bush campaign. Rove no longer has a financial interest in the firm.
Integral Resources Inc., a Boston-area telemarketing firm begun by one of Sen. John F. Kerry's former aides, got $1.8 million from the Kerry campaign.
The Thunder Road Group, a Washington media firm founded by Kerry's onetime campaign manager, Jim Jordan, was paid $4.1 million from the largest of the independent liberal groups opposing Bush.
Experts say that when the last dollar is counted, the cost of this year's race for the White House may exceed $1.5 billion.
Not surprisingly, with so much money injected into the process, a lot of people make a lot of money. Indeed, politics has become big business.
Instead of using volunteers, the presidential campaigns and their allies were far more likely to turn to savvy political operatives who charged top dollar to conduct opposition research, survey would-be voters, create advertisements, buy media time or mail out literature.
The money game also was fueled by the intense nature of this year's campaign.
"In an election where both candidates knew every vote would count, they began campaigning and spending money earlier than ever before," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine. "What we saw in 2004 was an eight-month-long general election campaign."
A Times analysis of campaign spending by the presidential candidates and the so-called 527 groups found that more than 60 firms received more than $1 million. The analysis was based on data provided by campaign finance research groups Dwight L. Morris & Associates and the Center for Public Integrity.
The majority of money spent in the campaign was on television advertising.
But there were other expenses as well: The Bush campaign paid $2.2 million to the White House for use of Air Force One. The Kerry campaign paid $557,000 for the use of the Flying Squirrel, a private plane owned by his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry
The Bush campaign paid $492,270 to the Reynolds Plantation, the Georgia resort where the campaign had its top fundraisers stay for a weekend celebration in April.
