Where’s all the campaign cash going?

Where’s all the campaign cash going?

by digby

Kevin Drum posts an interesting graph showing that presidential contests have become very expensive in just the last few years:

From 1964 all the way through 2000, the cost of presidential campaigns was pretty stable, ranging around $300-600 million in inflation-adjusted terms. It was only in 2004 and 2008 that costs suddenly went through the roof.

I wouldn’t have guessed that. I always figured that campaign costs had been rising inexorably for decades. But apparently not. They’ve only been rising inexorably for the past eight years.

Here’s my question again, which nobody ever seems to ask. Where’s all that money going?

Yesterday, I mused that it must be the television industry, and I’m still assuming that’s the case. But have their prices risen that much? Or is it the consultants? This precipitous rise in campaign costs means that somebody’s making a boatload of cash. Who?

.