Total of Utah campaigns: nearly $20 per voter

All the political TV ads, radio ads, lawn-sign blitzes, annoying phone calls by recording and brochures by mail are over for the 2006 election. It's time to tally how much it cost.

A computer-assisted analysis of preliminary reports by Utah's congressional and state Legislature candidates shows they spent a combined $10.8 million. Slightly less than 550,000 people voted across the state, and Utah's candidates spent a combined $19.73 per voter to influence them, not counting money also spent by county and school board candidates and spending on ballot propositions.

For that amount of money, candidates could have bought each voter a reserved upper-bowl ticket for a Utah Jazz game or two movie tickets and popcorn or about five pink flamingo lawn ornaments (instead of all those lawn signs).

The money also would have bought each voter any of the 25 top-selling books listed on Amazon.com (and maybe two of the top sellers). Or two medium pizzas, breadsticks, cinnamon sticks and a 2-liter soft drink from Pizza Hut. Or a round of golf (including use of a cart) at the Copper Golf Club in Magna.

In the end, however, all that campaign spending didn't change much in Utah.

The incumbent U.S. Congress members stayed the same. And the makeup of the House and Senate is the same. When the 2007 Legislature convenes, the House will still be 56 Republicans and 19 Democrats, while the Senate will remain 21 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Sure there will be new faces because of lawmakers' retirements and GOP incumbent losses in convention and the Republican primary. But out of 75 House elections and 16 Senate races, only two House seats changed in the general election: Democrat Phil Riesen beat Rep. Susan Lawrence, R-East Millcreek, and Republican Deena Ely defeated Rep. Carl Duckworth, D-Magna.

The biggest of the political spenders was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. His reports show he spent just under $4 million — or a bit more than $1 of every $3 spent by all federal and statewide office seekers in Utah.

Hatch ended up spending about $11.50 for each vote he received. And he could have spent even more. He had an additional $2.75 million in cash unspent just before the election. That was aided by $550,000 he collected at a fund-raiser in August attended by President Bush in downtown Salt Lake City.