What can $9M buy? Not an AG primary win

Many former candidates for higher office have the post-primary blues this week, but losing must have an extra sting for Shannon Liss-Riordan.

Imagine waking up Wednesday morning and realizing you spent some $9.3 million of your own money to come in second.

Andrea Campbell, former city councilor and winner of the Democratic primary for state attorney general, spent some $1.68 million on her campaign, as the Herald reported.

Before the election, Liss-Riordan touted the benefits of coughing up her own cash for the cause, telling reporters that selffunding put her above special interests, something her campaign manager suggested Campbell hadn’t managed to avoid.

“Since entering the campaign Andrea Campbell has laid out the red carpet to outside money,” campaign manager Jordan Meehan said last week. “She has repeatedly refused to disavow special interest money, and now the mega-donors who are hell-bent on expanding charter schools in Massachusetts have arrived to prop up Campbell’s flagging campaign.”

It would have taken a heck of a lot of propping to bridge the gap from $1.68 million to $9.3 million. Nonetheless, Campbell did just fine.

“We have turned our movement into a moment — a historic moment,” Campbell said at her campaign celebration in Quincy. “It is not lost on me that this is the first time a Black woman has ever been elected, not only as nominee for attorney general, but for any statewide office.”

Liss-Riordan is a labor attorney, with suits against companies like Uber and Starbucks on her legal resume, so it’s doubtful the $9M injection into her campaign coffers has her clipping coupons for Spam.

But the buyer’s remorse must be mighty, especially when one considers what a cool $9M could buy.

For starters, $8,495,000 could have gotten Liss-Riordan a cozy seven-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom compound in Aquinnah. There’s a six-bedroom main residence, a 1,000-square-foot, one-bedroom guest cottage and 17.76 acres of “lush rolling terrain,” according to the Upper Cape Realty listing. That would leave $505,000 left over for lovely coastal-themed bric-a-brac.

Liss-Riordan could have dropped that $9M on a Bugatti Centodieci. There are only 10 of these sportscars being made, and prices are already on the way up. It looks pretty snazzy, if that word can be applied to a Bugatti.

Or she could have taken a page out of climate czar John Kerry’s book and plunked down that $9M on a private Gulfstream. A 2005 G450 can be had for a scosh under that, and while Kerry reportedly boasts a 1995 Gulfstream GIVSP, they could still be jet buddies. You never know when you might need another high-falutin’ endorsement.

Both Campbell and Liss-Riordan had progressive heavy hitters supporting their bids for office. But only one had a formidable war chest.

There’s a positive takeaway, for anyone other than Liss-Riordan.

Campbell’s win should encourage those who make their bones on city councils and other local legislative bodies, but who feel cowed by the mega funds raised by their rivals for higher office.

Big bucks don’t guarantee a win.