This election year saw many businessmen and businesswomen who decided that they were going to utilize their personal fortunes to seek office as Governor or Senator, and happily, it can now be reported that they failed to accomplish their goal, except in two tragic cases: Wisconsin and Florida!
All of the personal fortune candidates were Republicans except for Jeff Greene in Florida, who ran for the Senate in the Democratic primary against Congressman Kendrick Meek, and was soundly defeated, by a margin of about 25 points!
Meanwhile, Meg Whitman set an all time record of using a personal fortune to seek the California Governorship, spending approximately $150 million, but losing to Jerry Brown!
Carly Fiorina sought the Senate seat in California, but lost to Senator Barbara Boxer.
Linda McMahon spent a good part of her fortune for the Senate seat in Connecticut, but lost to Richard Blumenthal.
John Raese sought the Senate seat in West Virginia, using a good part of his personal fortune, but lost to Governor Joe Manchin.
Carl Paladino ran for Governor in New York, but despite the use of a good part of his personal fortune, lost to Andrew Cuomo.
However, sadly, Ron Johnson, without any background in running for office, spent a lot of his personal fortune, and defeated Senator Russ Feingold, a major loss to progressive reform, probably the greatest single setback of the 2010 midterm election! 🙁
And even more tragically, Rick Scott, who had been involved in massive Medicare fraud in the 1990s, and forced to pay a major fine but able to avoid prison, had the gall to run for Governor of Florida, defeat state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the nomination, and defeat Chief Financial Office Alex Sink by the small margin statewide of 50,000 votes, and therefore will succeed Governor Charlie Crist, who lost his Independent run for the US Senate to Republican Marco Rubio! 🙁
The idea that a wealthy man, with a background of business fraud, and with not one newspaper in the state of Florida endorsing him, and with police chiefs and many Republican politicos refusing to back him, could end up winning the Governorship of the fourth largest state, is a sad commentary on politics in the state of Florida! The voters of the state should feel ashamed at what they have wrought! 🙁