Why 2022 is expected to be the most expensive campaign ever
Plus: The billionaire who bought an original U.S. Constitution for $43 million speaks
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The billionaire who bought an original U.S. Constitution for $43 million speaks
Check out this art from Andy Warhol’s college years
Why 2022 is expected to be the most expensive campaign ever
The billionaire who bought an original U.S. Constitution for $43 million speaks
The hedge fund manager who outbid a cryptocurrency group last year to buy one of 13 surviving original copies of the U.S. Constitution is speaking up about his purchase.
Kenneth Griffin told the Wall Street Journal he decided to buy the Constitution after the crypto group ConstitutionDAO raised more than $40 million in a matter of days to buy it.
“It’s very impressive how quickly the DAO raised $40 million to pursue buying the Constitution, but there were important questions about whether a large decentralized group would be able to manage the responsibilities necessary to protect this rare document,” he said.
Griffin called the experience of standing in front of the document a “profoundly impactful moment.”
It’s now on loan at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., along with a copy of the Bill of Rights Griffin bought for $1.5 million, and artwork including Jacob Lawrence’s “. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?—Patrick Henry, 1775” (1955) and a 1797 portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart.
The billionaire said he reached out to ConstitutionDAO about letting the group decide where to display the Constitution half the time, but Graham Novak, one of the crypto group’s founders, disputed that claim.
We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy is on view through Jan. 2, 2023.
Check out this art from Andy Warhol’s college years
Relatives of Andy Warhol plan to auction off their late uncle’s early college artwork, and it doesn’t look like the pop art he’s famous for.
There are 14 known paintings by Warhol from his time at the Carnegie Institute of Technology before moving to New York City, according to the Warhola family website. Two of the surviving paintings, “Nosepicker #1” and “Nosepicker #2,” both from 1948, show someone picking their nose.
Warhol’s nephew James Warhola (the artist dropped the a at the end of his name), told TribLive that he and his siblings received the paintings after their parents died.
“They’re really special because they showed my uncle’s aspirations as a young art student wanting to be a fine artist,” he said. “I always say, before there was the soup can, there was the ‘Nosepicker.’”
The artwork hasn’t been priced, but Warhol is hot right now. His “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” (1964) set the record for U.S. artists when it sold for $195 million in May. Last year, his “Nine Marilyns” (1962) sold for more than $47 million and “Sixteen Jackies” sold for nearly $40 million as part of a mega-divorce art auction.
Why 2022 is expected to be the most expensive campaign ever
Spending on political ads this year is expected to exceed the 2020 cycle.
A new report from AdImpact, an ad tracking firm, found spending this year is on pace to reach more than $9.6 billion, a 144% increase from the 2018 midterm cycle and $660 million more than 2020.
The firm credits the rising cost on a polarized electorate, the accessibility of online fundraising tools like ActBlue and WinRed, and a growth in down ballot and issue spending, which is up this year compared with 2020.
Spending on U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and gubernatorial races is all projected to go up this year as well, and four states have U.S. Senate races expected to reach $200 million: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
More money will be spent in California than any other state, thanks to U.S. House races, a sports betting proposition that’s already racked up $113 million in spending, and expensive media markets like Los Angeles.
Broadcast television ads make up about 51% of spending, followed by cable at about 16%, and digital and connected television both at about 15%. As cord cutting continues, the share of political advertising on connected TV is expected to grow.
“With massive increases in political expenditures coming year after year, a new norm has been established in the world of political advertising,” the report reads. “It no longer takes a presidential ticket at the top of the ballot to push a cycle near the $10 billion threshold.”