Kesha Rogers outspent 126 to 1

While researching the Texas senate race for another post I gleaned some information that I thought was inaccurate and being in a hurry I just omitted it. It struck as just too outrageous to be true. A search of Open Secrets' web site confirmed what I thought simply could not be true. From the report Democratic candidate David Alameel filed with the Federal Election Commission:

Raised: $3,529,364
Spent: $3,047,057
Cash on Hand: $482,306
Last Report: February 12, 2014
Candidate self-financing $3,512,912 (100%)

Fine, you say. It is extremely expensive to run a statewide campaign in Texas and he did win 47% of the Democratic vote. Maybe, but lets look at at Kesha Rogers' campaign finances after all she did win about 22% of the vote.

Raised: $26,699
Spent: $24,139
Cash on Hand: $2,560
Last Report: February 12, 2014
Candidate self-financing $0

By my calculations Alameel spent $12.93 for each vote he got whereas Rogers spent about 22 cents per vote. Good God! Then there was this from the Trail Blazers Blog at the Dallas Morning News.

Alameel is allied with state Sens. Wendy Davis and Leticia van de Putte, the likely nominees for governor and lieutenant governor. With a fortune topping $50 million, he would be expected to dig deep to drive up turnout for the ticket. In 2012, he spent $4.5 million in a losing bid for a U.S. House nomination.

He spent $4.5 million just to lose in a congressional primary? It's a free country and you will not hear me complain how anyone spends his own money. To his credit Mr. Alameel earned every penny of his fortune. He is the personification of the American Dream. He arrived in this country when he was 20, served in the military, studied and practiced dentistry before turning to investing. But my God he must be a terrible candidate!