Bump, who could not afford to spend much on the convention, ended up beating Glodis by a small margin.
Meanwhile, long-shot auditor candidate Lake spent heavily — at least, relative to his paltry campaign account, which is about one-twentieth of Glodis's. A relative unknown, Lake needed to break out at the convention, to get the 15 percent of votes needed to qualify for the primary ballot, and beyond that to attract potential volunteer activists from around the state.
The Lake campaign hosted a breakfast for delegates (the cost for which was not apparent in campaign-finance reports), paid more than a thousand dollars for video production, several thousand for printing of signs and handouts, and close to another $2000 for equipment and utilities — including $650 for walkie-talkies.
It seemed to pay off: Lake easily received his 15 percent, and left with a sizable coterie of volunteers.
In the other contested Democratic primary, for treasurer, well-heeled businessman and Democratic fundraiser Steve Grossman outspent late-entrant Boston City Councilor Stephen Murphy several-fold, springing for everything from a display booth to a sea of orange shirts. Nevertheless, Murphy, perhaps with more ambition than cash, managed to get just enough delegate votes to make the ballot.
But if the adage is "spend money to make money," there were few winners at either convention — initial campaign-finance reports showed little immediate fundraising boost for the candidates highlighted at the conventions of either party.
To read the "Talking Politics" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/talkingpolitics. David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein@phx.com.
