“I don’t believe that elections ought to be for sale,” she said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. To answer that question, I called up Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist at U.C.L.A. As soon as a candidate matches a rival on ad spending, any advantage tends to disappear, Professor Vavreck said. Of course, no one has spent the way Mr. Bloomberg can, so there isn’t a perfect test case for his approach. But Professor Vavreck is doubtful that he’ll find much success, unless the advertising leads to significant amounts of media coverage and is matched with a robust traditional campaign operation.

Source: New York Times December 05, 2019 23:15 UTC