By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – New campaign records show the two main party candidates for U.S. Senate in Missouri spent a record amount of money for any Senate race in state history, nearly 27 million dollars.
Republican Jim Talent outspent Democrat Claire McCaskill $15 million to $11 million. McCaskill won the race.
Previously, the most expensive Missouri Senate race was in 2002, when Talent and former Sen. Jean Carnahan spent more than $20 million combined. In that race, Talent spent about $8 million and Carnahan, the Democratic incumbent, spent nearly $13 million.
Most of the funds went to purchase expensive television advertising in major cities around the state. The money spent by the candidates does not include outside expenditures from national party organizations and other outside groups that totaled more than $21 million.
McCaskill's campaign received a major boost as contributions surged in the final 20 days leading up to the Nov. 7 race and the 20 days after. She outraised Talent by about $1 million during that time.
McCaskill's campaign finished with about $148,000 of debt, which the campaign expects to pay off within the next few months, McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said. The campaign paid off by Election Day a $500,000 personal loan that McCaskill made to her campaign. The loan was taken out against the equity in her home in Kirkwood, Mo.
Talent's campaign finished with no debt, spokesman Rich Chrismer said.
STEM CELL
Meanwhile, supporters of embryonic stem cell research spent a record $30.5 million on a Missouri ballot measure, a huge money advantage over opponents that translated into a narrow victory among voters.
Post-election finance reports released Thursday showed the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures spent about $30 for each of the 1,085,396 votes it received in the Nov. 7 election. The constitutional amendment passed by a roughly 2% margin.
The campaign ended up costing "significantly more" than supporters had expected, said coalition chairman Donn Rubin. That's partly because the ballot proposal received national attention both on its own merits and because it got intertwined with the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in which amendment supporter Democrat Claire McCaskill unseated Republican Jim Talent, an amendment opponent.
Almost all of the stem cell campaign's funding came from James and Virginia Stowers, cancer survivors who founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, which conducts stem cell research.
"Clearly, we outspent them (opponents) in terms of cash, but I think it's also fair to say we faced the most intense anti-ballot campaign in the history of Missouri," Rubin said.
More than a dozen groups reported spending money in opposition to the amendment, which guarantees that all federally allowed stem cell research and treatments can continue to occur in Missouri, including embryonic research that opponents contend clones and kills human life in its earliest stages.
Missourians Against Human Cloning, which reported spending a little more than $1 million, served as the lead group against the measure. But two entities actually spent more.
The Missouri Roundtable for Life spent about $1.2 million fighting the ballot measure. The Life Communications Fund reported spending nearly $1.6 million a few days before the election. But its final expenditures weren't known because it had not filed a post-election report with the Missouri Ethics Commission by Thursday evening.
Among other groups opposing the measure, the executive board of the Missouri Baptist Convention spent $131,762 and Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family spent $91,017. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis also was a significant contributor to the opposition, though most of its money was transferred to other opposition groups instead of spent directly.
Opponents had steadily cut into the stem cell measure's support in public opinion polls leading up to the election. That left opponents wondering if the result would have been different if only they had spent more cash.
"I think if we had some more money for electronic media at the end, it would have made a difference," said Jaci Winship, executive director for Missourians Against Human Cloning. "We had an amazing grassroots effort, but there still are people who only are going to pay attention to electronic media" such TV and radio ads.
OTHER SPENDING
Thursday's campaign finance reports also show supporters slightly outspent opponents of a proposed tobacco tax increase, although a slight majority of voters defeated Constitutional Amendment 3.
The Committee for a Healthy Future reported spending $7 million on its campaign for the tobacco tax, funded heavily by the Missouri Hospital Association and its political action committee. Opposition was led by Missourians Against Tax Abuse, which reported spending about $5.5 million, much of which came from R.J. Reynolds Co. Expenditures by several other groups and businesses brought the opposition total to just under $6 million.
Give Missourians a Raise Inc., which supported a successful proposal increasing Missouri's minimum wage, reported spending more than $1.8 million. The opposition group Save Our State's Jobs reported spending $146,905.