Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jesse Ventura. Al Franken. What do each of these politicians have in common? They were all well-known entertainment figures who converted their celebrity status into political success. This may seem like a new phenomenon, but its not. Ronald Reagan made his transition from Hollywood actor to governor of California in 1966.
But the door between politics and entertainment has begun to sway in the opposite direction over the past two elections cycles. Now, instead of converting celebrity into votes, politicians are converting votes into celebrity.
Consider Mike Huckabee, who was a relatively unknown former governor before he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008. He has since turned his co-starring role in the 2008 Republican primary into book deals, increased speaking fees and a fat contract from Fox News. He is now worth an estimated $5 million. And he’s not even 2008’s biggest winner.
Consider Sarah Palin, who, before Sen. John McCain plucked her from relative obscurity as governor of Alaska, was worth about $1 million. She has turned her newfound political celebrity into even bigger book deals, $100,000 speaker fees, a lucrative Fox contract, and her own reality TV show. Now she is worth an estimated $12 million.
Looking at these two examples, how could 2012 not inspire a fleet of copycats? Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., was a relative backbencher in the House but ended up winning the Ames Straw Poll. Now she too has her own book deal.
Herman Cain has never held elective office, but he was the Republican front-runner for almost a month. And don’t forget Donald Trump. He’s still threatening to run, maybe even as a third-party candidate, just for the headlines.
So just how much is all the free media from a presidential run worth? Millions, according to an analysis conducted by Tracey Robinson of National Media Research, Planning & Placement. Robinson tracked ratings and audience size for each of the first 13 Republican primary debates and, using National Media’s television advertising expertise, approximated how much an advertiser would have had to pay for one minute of exposure at each debate.
Robinson found that one minute in each debate was worth between $1.7 and $4.5 million, depending on whether the advertiser bought through the network nationally or bought all local media markets individually.
So for Newt Gingrich, who has received about nine minutes of speaking time on average in each debate so far, according to University of Minnesota professor Eric Ostermeier, his run has been worth somewhere between $14.4 and $40.5 million in free exposure.
Of course, Newt still has to find a way to monetize that free exposure. But of all the candidates, he is in the best position to do so. He has his own consulting business, communications firm and production company, all established before he entered the race and designed to monetize Gingrich’s political celebrity.
Is this development a bad thing? Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan sure thinks so. She recently called “people running for president not to be president but as a branding exercise … the worst trend in politics.”
But is it really? While there are many more debates in this primary cycle, television ad spending is way down. Thanks to these debates, more Americans are spending more time thinking and talking about politics than ever before. The price for getting this many eyeballs to pay attention to politics for the first time may be putting up with the Gingriches and Trumps of the world.
But Gingrich likely never expected to win the nomination, anyway. The race instead is coming down to two true office seekers: Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Whichever of them wins, thanks to the political infotainment complex, more voters will know more about them than ever.
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
