Brown-Warren Spending: Top Stories in Central Mass in 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

GoLocalWorcester Editors

The Massachusetts Senate race between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren was the most expensive contest in the state's history, with the candidates dropping a combined $78 million. With so much money in play, GoLocalWorcester took a look at where it was all going. The answer: mostly out of state.

Through mid-August reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, of the $15.9 million the Warren campaign had spent, only $3.2 million, or just over 20 percent, went to businesses and individuals based in the Bay State. Brown did not fare much better, with 77 percent of his campaign's $12.2 million ending up outside the Commonwealth.

According to one economist, the combined $22 million in out-of-state spending could have generated up to 1,000 jobs if it had stayed local. Instead, the majority of the funds went to national consultants and strategists with ties to other major candidates.

And in a race where women's issues were at the forefront on the campaign trail, Warren and Brown spent only a fraction of their campaign millions with certified minority- and women-owned businesses in the Commonwealth.