Ah, the smell of politics in the air. Or is it just dirty socks? Either way, with the elections coming up so soon it makes sense to ask your question, Ian!

     It's true that, to get elected to whatever, you have to spend some money. It has pretty much always been that way, just not so extreme. Way back when the USA was young, candidates would spend money on printing little flyers to hand out and also they would buy space in the local newspaper. That's true today as well. But there's more, so much more now!

     We live (duh!) in a modern world now, and that means that you can get your message out to voters in so many different ways! Candidates still use leaflets and newspaper ads, but they also have commercials on TV, on radio, they build websites and they spend a lot of time driving around their state (or country) visiting people. That can cost some serious dough if you think about it. Commercials on TV don't come cheap!

     The money game gets bigger if the political race heats up too. If two candidates start attacking each other on the airwaves, the costs just go up and up and up! The timeslots on TV and radio fill up towards the end of the campaign too, so advertising time can get expensive during the most important last days before the election happens.

     What does this all mean? Well, it means that in today's world, candidates spend a lot of their time raising money! They raise it from their supporters and companies who have an interest in seeing them win. This has spawned its own little problem, you've probably heard about it on the news how congresspeople are becoming more and more under the control of big-spending corporations. We're trying to work on that and I'm sure we'll find something that works for everyone. Rock the vote!

Did You Know?

Usually in an election, only around 50% of people come out and vote! What's up with THAT?