McCain tops the polls in Arizona, but it cost him

For a little while this past spring, it looked like John McCain’s re-election bid might be in serious trouble. There was that widely mocked immigration ad and a campaign shake-up, and his poll numbers weren’t as high as they used to be.

Well, that’s not a problem anymore. Three weeks before the GOP primary, polls find McCain with an average 20-point lead over his opponent, Rep. J.D. Hayworth.

But it’s a lead that McCain paid heavily for. According to his most recent campaign filings, McCain spent more than $10 million over the last three months, bringing his total spent on the race to just over $16 million. By comparison, Hayworth has spent just $1.5 million on the race.

Most of McCain’s millions have gone into ads attacking Hayworth, in part for his star turn in a less-than-reputable infomercial that attempted to sell its audience on how to get free money from the government. But the bigger story is how McCain’s spending tended to undercut the message that his campaign operatives tried to peddle to reporters covering the campaign. For months, McCain officials laughed off Hayworth as a joke of a challenger — something that the polls would seem to confirm today. But money talks in politics — and it's clear by the McCain camp's exorbitant spending that its strategists viewed Hayworth as a serious threat, especially against the backdrop of other GOP incumbent losses.