A reasonable question when contemplating a run for a legislative office is: “How much will it cost to run a successful campaign?” Fortunately, the Georgia Campaign Finance Committee and the Federal Election Commission keeps track of those numbers for us. Lore assembles those numbers and builds a high level picture of the cost of running a campaign. To illustrate this point create a profile for the 50th State House District. If you are unfamiliar with creating profiles, take a quick look at To Run or Not To Run: Part 1. Once you have created the profile for the 50th District, tap on the blue My Campaign – 50 button. In the list of pages, you will see a blue Campaign Financing button. Tap on it.

This page shows you the campaign receipts and expenditures for each candidate. Note that the 50th District was not affected by redistricting. In any case, you should notice two things. First, both candidates substantially outspent the typical State House District candidate. Second, both candidates spent similar amounts of money. The key point is that every district is different.

Your next step is to create a profile for your district. See how much was spent by each candidate. Next go to the Georgia Campaign Finance Committee or the Federal Election Commission to see how these candidates spent their campaign money. You will find details on US House campaign financing in the FEC website and State Senate and House details on the Georgia Campaign Finance Committee website.