Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie and Sen. Peter Shumlin were less than 4,400 votes apart, so perhaps it’s not surprising that their expenditures were also very close. The two candidates spent a total of $2.913 million: Dubie spent $1.486 million — $59,491 more than Shumlin did.
The two main outside groups that fueled hundreds of thousands of dollars into election season advertising – the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association — hadn’t yet filed campaign finance reports on Monday with the Vermont secretary of state’s office.
According to reports of mass media buys on the secretary’s Web site, the DGA outspent the RGA by $347,294. The national Democratic group spent $609,204 under its own name on Shumlin’s behalf and $493,855 on “issue ads” under a 527 nonprofit group known as Green Mountain Future.
The RGA’s Green Mountain Prosperity political action committee’s expenditures on behalf of Dubie totaled $755,765, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Secretary of State on Nov. 15.
Other groups, including Planned Parenthood of New England ($119,437); Vermont Conservation PAC ($15,182); Vermont Working Families ($5,897) spent a total of $140,516, according to figures from the public files made available at local television stations. (Planned Parenthood reported that it spent $25,225 in its statement to the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.)
In all, the record shows – so far – that outside groups spent $1.99 million on the gubernatorial General Election.
Add it all up, including the amount spent on the Democratic primary ($1.2 million), and you get a grand total of $6.1 million.
The biggest winners in the 2010 gubernatorial election were the state’s three commercial TV stations.
WPTZ made $772,600 in advertising from September through November in ads from PACs, 527s and the two candidates; WCAX brought in $713,359; and Fox 44 received $366,285.
Downticket dispersals
Compared with the gubernatorial race, the downticket statewide races are small potatoes. The lieutenant governor’s contest stayed under $350,000 total, and the secretary of state’s race came in under $150,000 for both candidates.
Here’s a rundown of total expenditures:
Lieutenant governor
Phil Scott, Republican: $175,050 (winner)
Steve Howard, Democrat: $160,343.
Secretary of State
Jim Condos, Democrat: $83,020 (winner)
Jason Gibbs, Republican: $61,055.
State Auditor
Tom Salmon, Republican: $57,103 (winner)
Doug Hoffer, the Democrat/Progressive, didn’t file a cover sheet for his submission to the Secretary of State’s office, so total figures for his campaign weren’t available Monday.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:13 a.m. to include new figures from Green Mountain Prosperity. Shumlin’s campaign totals include his primary and General Election expenditures. He gave his campaign $285,000 over the course of both contests. The downticket dispersals section was added at 9:30 a.m.
