My Blog on September 10th portrayed the amounts of money raised and spent as reported through that date for each candidate. The additional reports have been made to the state and we can now show the final tallies for each candidate.
This is certainly among the most expensive races, and may go down as the most expensive primary race, for the 24th Assembly seat ever; the total amount reported as being spent was $74,250 by the six candidates in the race. A total of 8,178 votes were cast with each vote carrying a price tag of $9.10.
With the winner in each party shown first, following are the final numbers by candidate:
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Charlene Brady (D) spent $274.04, and won her race with 564 votes that cost her $0.49 each.
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Torrey Lauer (D) spent $5,602.59, and lost his race with 386 votes that cost him $14.51 each.
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Dan Knodl (R) spent $17,072.32, and won his race with 2,706 votes that cost him $6.31 each.
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Jason LaSage (R) spent $16,830.56, and lost his race with 2,312 votes that cost him $7.28 each.
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Randy Melchert (R) spent $33,754.76, and lost his race with 1,995 votes that cost him $16.92 each.
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Michael Moscicke (R) spent $715.80, and lost his race with 215 votes that cost him $3.33 each.
The two biggest spenders were Melchert and LaSage. Melchert contributed $30,000 to his own campaign, and LaSage contributed $20,000 to his own campaign. They each were certainly willing to "put their money where their mouthes were".
Obviously, the complaint against Dan Knodl over campaign issues has yet to be decided. So, that shoe is still to fall and until then it is silly to make any predictions. The charges lodged are serious in terms of the penalties that could be levied.
