Jeb Bush Finds Money Can't Buy Love... Or Move His Poll Numbers

A couple of new national polls have come out over the weekend. They are very similar:

ABC/Washington Post

abc poll 11-25

Fox News

fox news 11-25Both polls show the race to be between four candidates divided into two distinct tiers.

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What is most telling, though, is the way that Jeb Bush has found a comfy home at around 5%. Via the RCP average

rcp average 11-25

Bush, after having his ass handed to him by Donald Trump, has decided that defeating [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] is his ticket to staying in the race. The thinking is that both Bush and Rubio are competing for the same donors and voters and “there can be only one.” So how is that working out?

With a full year left until the 2016 presidential election it’s still unclear who will emerge the winner. But when it comes to millions spent on TV ads, one candidate has already taken the top spot: Jeb Bush.

However, other than some gift baskets from local stations in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former Florida governor has little to show for it, with poll numbers stubbornly stuck in the single digits.

Bush and his supporters have so far spent an eye-popping $20 million in TV commercials during the 2016 presidential race — more than twice as much as any other candidate, according to ad-spending data from NBC partner SMG Delta. The bulk — $19.5 million — was spent by his Super PAC, Right to Rise.

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To put this in context, this represents $20 million of about $103 million Right to Rise had on hand at last report. It doesn’t represent staff costs, real estate rental, data processing and list rental, direct mail, or the cost of the video production. It doesn’t reflect the anemic fundraising of the past few months. In short, this is profligate spending, it is spending that reflects the campaign knows it is on death watch and now is throwing in everything that it has, and it is spending that isn’t doing anything but lining the pockets of the consultant class.

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