Candidates’ campaign expenses can get costly

Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News

— CUMBERLAND — An election can cost the candidate just about as much as he or she wants it to, say those who have been through the campaign process.

The campaign and the costs are over for Brian Alderton, a first-time candidate who was elected in June as Frostburg’s commissioner of water, parks and recreation.

Because he was running for a seat in a small town with a limited number of voters — he won 555 to 409 — Alderton said he decided to personally finance the effort.

“Although I have lived in Frostburg all my life, I needed more name recognition here,” Alderton said. “My jobs with the board of education were in just about every town but Frostburg, places like Flintstone and Westernport.”

Alderton said the bulk of his campaign money was spent on signs and advertising.

“I had 100 signs printed at Printers Inc. and I wasn’t sure if I could get all of them placed by Election Day, but I did, with help from family and friends.”

His sign colors? Red, white and blue.

Alderton said he financed his own campaign so that he would not be beholden to donors. “If it was a bigger race in a bigger setting I would have probably set up a foundation,” he said.

The success of President Barack Obama’s campaign use of Facebook was not lost on Alderton, who realized it was as cheap as kissing babies and applied it to his rural municipal setting.

“Before I even filed, I announced on Facebook that I would run and by the end of the first day we discovered a lot of people knew about it,” he said. “The beauty of it is that it was not an expense.

“The Times-News ads in the Frostburg Express really worked. We started hearing from people right away about them. It was an easy way to get our info out.”

Toss in a few signs on his and his mother’s cars and Alderton said he probably spent about $1,000. “It wasn’t a conventional campaign. I’m not a big-time campaigner. I don’t think I’ll ever be governor.”

Wendell Beitzel campaigns this summer over a more expansive area, all of Garrett County and the George’s Creek portion of Allegany County in his effort to be returned as a state delegate. He has also been a county commissioner.

“The first time I put out a lot of signs because I was a first-time candidate for the House,” Beitzel said. “I probably won’t have as many out this time. They are sitting in my garage right now and are ready to go.”

There is no rush for Beitzel to force the campaign. His only challenger is of the other party, Democrat, so he and James Stanton will skip the primary and lock horns in November.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much money you can spend on transportation, for gas and upkeep of your automobile as you campaign,” Beitzel said.

“The first time I ran I went door to door. If nobody was home I’d leave a door hanger with my contact information. One candidate for county office told me she put 5,000 miles on her car just driving around the county going to voters and to events.”

Besides the expense for signs, Beitzel and his backers fork over cash for other promotional material such as brochures.

Beitzel said his single biggest cost was for advertising on radio and in newspapers. “I considered using billboards, but eventually decided against it,” he said. Ditto for TV. “I didn’t think that would be useful,” he said.

An ample amount is spent on food and drink for political fundraisers, according to Beitzel, though some of the goods are donated.

“Also, when you go to a charity event like a cash bash or gun bash or quilt raffle it’s hard to say ‘no’ when someone asks you to buy tickets,” he said. “One time I got a call in Annapolis from the Barton fire company and they wanted to know where to send my money I’d won in a raffle. I told them to keep it for the fire department and found out some time later it was $300.”

Jen James, director of advertising at the Times-News, said that an online ad (www.times-news.com) for Champ Zumbrun, a candidate for Allegany County commissioner, was clicked on 196 times in June and 125 times in July.

“Each reader then spent 3 1/2 minutes reading his bio and his campaign information,” James said. “That’s excellent. Think about how much time you have to read a billboard as you are driving by it.”

James said she expects views of the ad to increase as the Sept. 14 primary election nears.

Phil VanTreuren, a city councilman in Amherst, Ohio, writing on the website artofmanliness.com, said, “The candidate with the largest donor base usually wins the race — not only because it allows him to spend more on the campaign trail, but because it’s a good indicator of how much local support he has. Raising money might be a distasteful part of campaigning for new candidates, but it’s a necessity if you can’t afford to finance your campaign from your own wallet.”

The campaigns and expenditures have likely come to an end for Robert Schadler, who is in the last months of 16 years as a state legislator from Mineral County, W.Va.

Schadler’s attempt to switch from an elected state position to the role of circuit clerk for Mineral County ended recently when he did not survive the primary election.

Schadler’s status as a veteran campaigner came by way of eight two-year terms and all the handshaking and banquet attending that went with them.

“We used the standard things, yard signs and advertisements,” Schadler said. “Of my eight times running for state office, I was only unopposed once. Another time, my supporters believed that I had a little stiffer competition than usual, so we included TV ads with WHAG.”

As a state delegate, Schadler’s voter base lived from Keyser to Wiley Ford. But as a candidate for circuit clerk, he sought votes from throughout Mineral County.

“We had to find some new yards for signs, but that wasn’t too tough,” he said.

Will the school bus driver and funeral home employee run for office again?

“I’m thinking mostly about retirement right now,” he said.

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