Cost of Winning ’84 Senate Race Put at $3 Million

The 33 senators elected or reelected last year spent an average of almost $3 million each on their campaigns, and it cost $288,636 to win a House race in 1984, the Federal Election Commission said Saturday.

The agency, closing the books on last year’s congressional races, confirmed that the total cost of the 1984 elections was $374.1 million, or 9.3% more than the $342.4 million that candidates spent in 1982.

The rate of growth was far below that of the previous two elections. Spending on the congressional races soared 43% from 1980 to 1982 and 23% from 1978 to 1980.

Minor Differences

There were only minor differences between the final spending figures that the FEC released and those in a preliminary report on the congressional races that the agency issued last May 15.

The report showed a tiny, but unusual, dip in the amount spent on House races. Total spending in the races for all 435 House seats plus five non-voting seats fell by $300,000 to $203.6 million--a 0.2% decrease.

At the same time, the races for the 33 Senate seats at stake last year consumed $170.5 million, or 23% more than in 1982. The 33 Senate victors spent $97.5 million, or an average of $2.95 million apiece.

The winners in the House races spent $127 million, or an average of $288,636 apiece.

PAC Contributions

Political action committees provided $105.3 million, or 26.5% of all the money raised in congressional races. That was up by 26% from the $83.6 million that PACs donated in 1982. It was also nearly double the $55.2 million that PACs poured in to congressional contests in 1980 and triple the $34.1 million PACs gave in 1978.

The FEC, in explaining the drop in spending on House races, said: “There were more incumbent (House) candidates involved in ‘safe’ seats, where the margin of victory was 60% or more, than in previous election cycles.”

Also, “there was an unusually small number of House seats in which the incumbent did not run for reelection,” it said.