The $30m Delegate

From the Economist: A look at what 2008 presidential candidates got for their money...

MONEY obviously matters in American politics, but some who wish to be president clearly get a better return on their investments than others. The big Democratic spenders (Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) have already shelled out more than $40m dollars each for their campaigns; the Republican Mitt Romney has spent over $50m. At least they have some delegates to show for it. Rudy Giuliani, so far, has spent over $30m and has just a single delegate (this should change in the Florida primary on Tuesday January 29th). The most efficient is Mike Huckabee, who claims 40 delegates for an outlay of $1.6m, a rate of about $42,000 per delegate compared with, for example, Mr Romney's $908,000. A Democrat needs 2,025 delegates to seal the nomination, a Republican needs only 1,191.

One more time: Rudy Giuliani spent $30m so far and has a single delegate pledged. He is currently running third in Florida. Someone in that campaign will have a hard time finding work when he drops out (a.k.a. next week).

**Update** This article was posted today, its chart has incorrect delegate totals. I'm not sure what I'm missing, maybe someone can figure it out and let me know. Anyway, here are the pledged delegate totals according to CNN:

Democrats (2025 needed)
Clinton- 230
Obama- 152
Edwards- 61

Republicans (1191 needed)
Romney- 73
McCain- 38
Huckabee- 29
Paul- 6
Giuliani 2