• Everybody knows that the California Governor’s race is really, really expensive. Meg Whitman has dropped  $162 million so far on her bid, with Jerry Brown spending an only-modest-by-comparison $25.5 million. However, Whitman’s spending (including $22 million this month alone) hasn’t been able to buy her a lead in the polls. The latest Public Policy Poll has Brown leading by 11 points, 53-42. This made us wonder: how much has each candidate spent for each percentage point they hold in the polls? The results were somewhat lopsided:

• $481k the price Jerry Brown pays for one percentage point in the polls. Not a paltry sum, to be sure.
• $3.8m the price Meg Whitman pays for one point in the polls. That’s eight times as much. And she’s still down! source

Posted by Seth Millstein • Permalink