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- GRAPEVINE, Page 17That Could Buy a Lot of Pamphlets
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- By SOPHFRONIA SCOTT GREGORY
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- Take one calculator, some political financial experts and
- the estimated campaign budgets needed to elect California's
- statewide candidates this year, and what do you get? The
- costliest state election year in U.S. history -- about $100
- million. Several factors converged to make it so: two state
- senate races going full blast, a reapportionment that added
- seven new congressional seats, and the highest expense of all,
- TV time. Television has become an absolute necessity for
- statewide election, since it's the only way to reach huge
- numbers of voters quickly. "We are putting our elected officials
- into hock the day they are sworn in," says veteran political
- consultant Joseph Cerrell. He also notes that a 1954 state
- assembly campaign cost just $6,000. But then, not too many
- people had TV in 1954.
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