Man, Some Republicans Are Really Rich...and Really Want to Be Elected.

So far in this election cycle, three Republican candidates have spent a combined $243 million on their own campaigns. Has anybody told them the salary of the jobs for which they are fighting? Basic math says it might not be worth it.

This nearly quarter-of-a-billion-dollars does not include outside money; this is money only from their pockets that went directly into their own campaigns.

Here is the breakdown of the three:

Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for governor is California, has spent $163 million. That is of course ebay money. As of now, she is down 13 points to Democrat Jerry Brown.

Rick Scott has spent over $60 million on his campaign. He is a former health care executive. Wonder his take on the health care bill? His race for Governor in Florida is currently too close to call.

And Linda McMahon, of World Wide Wrestling fame, rounds out the trio by spending just $41.5 million in her Senate race in Connecticut. While that is significantly less than Whitman, as Politico points out, it is over twice as much per voter when compared to Whitman in California. She is currently down by 18 points.

Now just for some context, here are a few things that Meg Whitman's share alone ($163 million) could have bought:

-About 5400 fighter drones. (They are about $30,000 a pop.)

 -The movie Titanic. Well almost.( Full cost was almost $200 million, but with interest and everything, I figured it was close enough.)

-The public school system of Newark, NJ over one and a half times. Or the ability to get Aaron Sorkin to write a movie about you. (Maybe it could be called The Socially Conservative Network?)

-A little less than one day of the Iraq War.

-An absurd amount of jobs in the state of California, Florida and Connecticut. (Hard data unavailable.)

Just for a moment, imagine if these three people had spent this money trying to create jobs, not the three jobs they are fighting for, but rather jobs for millions of American in their homes states and beyond.  A quarter of a billion dollars could do a lot of good in the world. Maybe more good than the best politician, no matter how well-intentioned or suited for the job, could ever hope to achieve.

Just maybe.