This Bearded Mammoth Spent $35 On His Campaign, Almost Won The Governor’s Seat In Rhode Island

SteveHolt11 years ago

Unfortunately, Bob Healey is not the governor of Rhode Island.

The political activist and founder of the “Cool Moose Party” surprised dozens of political pundits when he captured 22 percent of the state’s gubernatorial vote on Tuesday, even outright winning multiple communities. No one expected him to make a dent in the race. Hell, no one expected him to do anything.

Healey hadn’t raised any money for his campaign. In a year where the election business spent $3.7 billion, Healey’s entire campaign cost $35.

From the Washington Post:

On Tuesday night, Providence’s Eyewitness News was a bit shocked. A political analyst said on air: “I don’t think anybody expected Bob Healey to get that high. We expected Bob Healey in double figures, maybe as high as 14 or 15 percent, but he really drew a lot of votes. Some communities he actually won, if I remember seeing the numbers correctly. He ran second in some communities.”

Healey wasn’t the only surprise America saw on election night. A community in West Virginia elected an 18-year-old West Virginia University college freshman to represent it at the state level. The state of Washington, known for being progessively liberal, elected a dead man to its state legislature. And, of course, who could forget Stubbs, the cat-mayor of the small Alaskan town of Talkeetna, who has comfortably ruled over her subordinates since 1997? (Talkeetna doesn’t have term limits.)

As for Healey, who has (read: hasn’t) showered at least once in the last decade, his only regret is his monetary investment in the campaign.

“It’s amazing what $35 can do. As I’ve been saying, if we only spent $75, $80, we might’ve won the race.”.

[via Washington Post]