D'ough! Putting a Price Tag on the 30th.

Democratic incumbent Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson raised $548,514 to run for re-election and won with 75.76 percent of the vote, which was not up to her standard snuff. In 2006, the 17-year veteran raised only $411,189 but won with 80.19 percent. Of course, that was before scholar-gyp. Johnson was surpassed...

By Jim Schutze

November 3, 2010

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Democratic incumbent Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson raised $548,514 to run for re-election and won with 75.76 percent of the vote, which was not up to her standard snuff. In 2006, the 17-year veteran raised only $411,189 but won with 80.19 percent. Of course, that was before scholar-gyp.

Johnson was surpassed in fund-raising this year by her T-GOP opponent Stephen Broden. He pulled in $604,951, beating her by more than 50 grand. EBJ raised only $226,418 from individuals, the rest from PACs. Broden raised $563,217 from individuals, more than twice her tally.

The other way to look at it is this. In 2006 the Republican in the 30th District, Wilson Aurbach, raised $73,614 and pulled down 17,850 votes, a rate of $4.12 a vote. Broden's tally of 24,599 votes cost him about 25 bucks per vote.

As a seasoned political analyst, my conclusion is that Broden would have been better off giving that money to his grandchildren.

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Jim Schutze has been the city columnist for the Dallas Observer since 1998. He has been a recipient of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ national award for best commentary and Lincoln University’s national Unity Award for writing on civil rights and racial issues. In 2011 he was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters.

Contact: Jim Schutze