Campaign Finance vs. Social Welfare

Money spent on ugly ads could help so many
Sunday, November 05, 2006
JOE BLUNDO

Dear campaign contributors: If you really want to improve society, I have an idea: Don’t send money to politicians so they can make idiotic TV ads. Instead, buy food, medical insurance or an education for the people whom politicians like to bluster about helping.

Next election, you’ll eliminate the middleman and clean up the airwaves at the same time.

Here’s the math:

I took a quick survey of media executives to come up with $30 million — a conservative estimate of how much will be spent on televised political ads in the Columbus market by Tuesday.

The total immediately brings to mind three words: What a waste. So then I tried to think of agencies and people who could put all those millions to better use.

It’s a long, long list.

But here’s an idea of what $30 million could buy:

• More than 15 million meals for the hungry.

The estimate is based on a meal consisting of 1.28 pounds of food at $1.50 a pound (wholesale), said Evelyn Behm, associate director of the Mid-Ohio FoodBank, which supplies food to pantries in 20 central and eastern Ohio counties.More

Food for thought as you probably turned the channel on about 20 political ads that you have seen 30 times this past weekend.

Remember to vote on November 7th.