“Does the amount spent by candidates in an election campaign get reflected in results?” is a question often asked.

The answer from several analyses that have been made, including by us, is a qualified yes.  It does influence some people, but doesn’t guarantee an outcome.

Below for interest is a table of the totals spent by the different candidates in last month’s US Presidential election:  Hillary Clinton spent more than double what Donald Trump did ($640 million to $302 million) — and considering Hillary Clinton was massively backed by arms manufacturers and big Wall Street dealers and managers, that’s not surprising.

But she didn’t win; although she got 2.8 million more votes than Trump nationwide, Trump knew which swing states would be responsive to his message and used the antiquated electoral college system well.

With the Kapiti elections in October, candidate expense returns are viewable on the KCDC website here.

The totals spent by the Waikanae Ward council candidates were:

Geoffrey Churchman  $1,169

Iride McCloy  $8,135

Tim Parry  $1,692

Michael Scott  $1,789