Campaiging spending exceeds $40 million (written August 31)

Flipping through any of the local newspapers, if it weren’t for the countless articles on the subject, one would have no idea that a major municipal elections is just days away. Along with public appearances made by candidates, Wednesday’s moratorium on campaigning banned newspaper campaign ads as well. However, to find evidence of the upcoming election all you have to do is walk outside and take a look around. In the wake of months of campaigning are hundreds if not thousands of campaign posters hanging from lamp-posts and pamphlets littering the streets and sidewalks.

Certainly, it’s a phenomenon not unique to Mexico, but with the end of campaigning people are already asking the question “Was all that money spent on campaigning really necessary.” In his opinion piece in the Diario de Xalapa, Carlos Bravo says no. From Thursday:

What’s saddest about this battle for power is the enormous sum of money that has been invested, in both the campaigns and in the IEV (Electoral Institute of Veracruz), which is something around 400 million ($40 million), of which most is thrown away like trash. In the mean time, it could have been used to do good works such as supporting the Xalapa’s infant hospital and various schools, instead it is wasted at the expense of the city and the entire state. (Trans. from Spanish)

More so than in campaigns in the US, political campaigns here, even of politically conservative candidates running for relatively insignificant local seats, adopt an extremely populist tone. Every campaign slogan seems to direct its promises to either workers, the poor or the ‘pueblo.’ With so much money spent on a process that rarely produces results that actually change the living circumstances of the working poor, or a majority of Mexicans, the fact that so much money is wasted on campaigns is especially demoralizing to the society. However, maybe this time, here, things will be different and positive change will actually come to those who need it most…or not.