Photo: Getty Images
BOSTON (State House News Service) — Turns out a nearly $6.5 million August blitz was not enough for Shannon Liss-Riordan.
That's one of the takeaways from a striking bubble chart of monthly raising and spending data published by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance: Liss-Riordan's campaign spent about $6.46 million on her unsuccessful attorney general bid between Aug. 1 and Aug. 31, far more than any other Massachusetts candidate over the same span.
In fact, Liss-Riordan, a prominent labor attorney, spent more in that one-month period than fellow statewide hopefuls Maura Healey, Chris Doughty, Eric Lesser, Andrea Campbell, William Galvin and Diana DiZoglio -- the second- through seventh-highest spending candidates -- combined.
Most of that money came from Liss-Riordan herself. OCPF records show Liss-Riordan injected $9.3 million into her own campaign, with $6.3 million of those deposits occurring in August alone.
It wound up being an expensive loss. Liss-Riordan finished second with 34.1 percent of the vote, about 16 percentage points and 115,000 votes behind winner Andrea Campbell. Quentin Palfrey, who dropped out of the race on Aug. 30 and endorsed Campbell, finished in third with 15.7 percent.
Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty, who lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to former Rep. Geoff Diehl, was the only GOP statewide candidate to crack the top 10 in August spending, the OCPF charts show.
Doughty, another big self-funder who poured nearly $2.3 million of his own money into his bid, spent $1.17 million in August -- more than eight and a half times as much as Diehl did over the month -- and lost by an even 11 percentage points.
Written By Chris Lisinski/SHNS
Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App