Big Money Can't Buy Some Political Seats

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If nothing else, the results of the 2010 midterm election show that Americans are less willing to let wealthy candidates golden parachute their way in from the private sector and buy their way into office.

Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, spent a staggering $142 million on her California gubernatorial campaign, most of it her own money. Whitman, whose personal fortune is estimated at $1.3 billion, lost to veteran politician Jerry Brown, despite her record-breaking expenditures.

In her bid to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Calif. Democrat, Republican challenger Carly Fiorina felt California's distrust of big business on Nov. 2. Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, hoped California voters would want someone with business experience in the Senate, but Sen. Boxer held onto her seat for another term.

In the race for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut, Linda McMahon, the former CEO of Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment, spent an estimated $45 million on her campaign to succeed the retiring Sen. Chris Dodd.
Despite her personal fortune and business background, Democratic challenger Richard Blumenthal pinned her to the mat with a 54 percent to 44 percent win in Connecticut.

Related articles

• Some Big Spenders Were Big Losers (blogs.wsj.com)
• "Former CEOs Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina are running for office in California" and related posts (blogs.babble.com)
• The big tech pedigree doesn't help: Whitman and Fiorina go down in flames (venturebeat.com)
• All Eyes on the Western Front (abcnews.go.com)
• 'Buy It Now' FAIL: Former eBay CEO Whitman Is The Biggest Loser (wired.com)