Alice Cooper – "Elected" (1973)

I never lied to you

I’ve always been cool

I wanna be elected!

Saying that billionaire David Trone spends money on his political campaigns like a drunken sailor is probably not fair to drunken sailors.

Trone knows drunken sailors, by the way – he and his brother Robert own Total Wine & More, which operates 250-odd liquor superstores in 28 states.  The company’s 2023 revenues exceeded $6 billion.  

Life is good when you’re a billionaire!

Trone set a record in 2016 when he spent $13 million of his own money in an unsuccessful attempt to win the Democratic primary election for Maryland’s 8th congressional district.  No one has ever spent more money to lose a race for Congress.

But Trone is no dummy.  When 2018 rolled around, he didn’t run in the 8th district again – he ran for the 6th district nomination instead.  (Trone didn’t have to change his address to run in the 6th district – members of Congress don’t have to reside in the district they represent.). Trone then outspent his Republican opponent by a 10-to-1 margin and cruised to victory in November.

Trone easily won re-election in 2020 and 2022, and probably could have held on to his congressional seat indefinitely.  But when one of Maryland’s incumbent U.S. Senators announced his intention to retire, Trone decided he was the man for the job.

That turned out to be a very expensive mistake!

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Despite being once bitten by his 2016 fiasco, David Trone was not twice shy.  He spent about $62 million seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s open Senate seat, only to lose to Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

And it wasn’t even close.  Alsobrooks beat Trone by a 53-to-43 margin.

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I’m old enough to remember when filthy-rich businessmen like David Trone were Republicans.  But if you’re filthy rich enough, you don’t really have to worry about how high taxes and inflation are – you can afford to be a Democrat.

I’m also old enough to remember when it was the Republicans who had the advantage when it came to buying elections.  But now it’s the Democrats who have a big advantage in campaign spending.

According to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan research group, Democratic candidates for federal office in 2020 heavily outspent their Republican opponents:

Biden’s campaign became the first to raise over $1 billion from donors.  Biden’s cash advantage over Trump helped him pepper swing states with far more campaign ads.  Biden also received more help from super PACs and “dark money” groups. 

Trump’s campaign raised $774 million.  Trump raised over half of his money from small donors giving $200 or less, a stunning figure no other presidential candidate has matched. . . .

In Senate races, Democratic general election candidates raised over $1.1 billion, easily dwarfing Republicans’ $752 million.  In House races, Democrats outraised Republicans $898 million to $763 million. 

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Pretty much every time I do a post about elections, I feature Alice Cooper’s 1973 hit, “Elected.”

Click here to view the fabulous “Elected” music video.

Click here to buy the record from Amazon.