The NY Times, in a recent article about the money spent on private jets for presidential campaigns details both the necessity for private travel and the tremendous amount of money spent on it. Marc Ramthun, operations manager at CSI Campaign Travel Services, estimates private campaign travel costs at somewhere between $3 to $5 million dollars, and that’s just in the initial stages of an election. Later, leading candidates may spend up to $20 million on private travel.
The demanding schedule of a political candidate necessitates multi-leg flights, multiple times a week. The author of the article, Joe Sharkey, estimates that it could take half a week to try and schedule a typical campaign day's itinerary via commercial airlines.
Are these costs unnecessary in principle, or does the efficiency in time and privacy of a chartered flight justify spending millions of dollars on private air travel?
I'd say it depends on who the candidate is, how much their travel costs weigh out in commercial VS private travel costs, and how much is at stake.
Any thoughts?
I don't think it is so simple to say that it is all money well spent. I think that you are right that it does depend of who and as well I believe it matters how far along they are in elections. President it definitely makes sense, but just to save time all candidates shouldn't have such a luxury. These candidates should be concerned with how much money they are spending and gas they are using instead of it being more convenient. I think that the amount of money they spend on transportation should definitely dwindle down especially in our economy currently.
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