Constitutional Studies

The High Cost of Running for Office

The average cost of winning a seat in the U.S House of Representatives is $1,567,379 which is a lot of money spent, to obtain a job that pays $ 174,000 per year.

The average cost of winning a campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2012 was $11,474,362

The men and women elected to Congress, fund their elections with other people's money. The donors are primarily corporations which provide the means for the candidates to get elected. Once they are elected they repay their benefactors by passing the legislation that benefits their donors. Congressmen and women do not represent the people who elect them, they represent the corporations who fund their election.

Senator Rick Scott of Florida spent over $80 million dollars to purchase huas seat with money donated by the billiomaires and Wall Street Cor[ptstions. Who do you think he represents? Is it the people who voted for him, or is it those that funded his election ?

That number was upgraded in 2012 by OpenSecretsBlog to include 268 of the 534 member$ of CONgress having an average net worth of '1' million or more with Senators averaging $2.7 M.