>On the other hand you don't see a ton of money going to non-competitive races because it doesn't really matter. The politician doesn't benefit all that much so it's not exactly a great way to earn favors.
Just my own speculation, but this is probably only true to a certain point. A politician in a non-competitive race is not going to have anything productive to do with 15 million as in NV3, but money that goes to the PAC run by your former aide helps to grease his palm (so 100k goes in and 50k is spent on ads, 50k on the PAC CEO's salary for example), or to similarly grease the palm of your various consultants, friends, and family, or to grease the palms of friendly industry groups who you sincerely hope will hire you on a do-nothing job once you retire from politics.
Money coming in to a certain point is always a good thing, and I speculate being in a foregone conclusion race probably helps limit the scrutiny on how you spend it.
Just my own speculation, but this is probably only true to a certain point. A politician in a non-competitive race is not going to have anything productive to do with 15 million as in NV3, but money that goes to the PAC run by your former aide helps to grease his palm (so 100k goes in and 50k is spent on ads, 50k on the PAC CEO's salary for example), or to similarly grease the palm of your various consultants, friends, and family, or to grease the palms of friendly industry groups who you sincerely hope will hire you on a do-nothing job once you retire from politics.
Money coming in to a certain point is always a good thing, and I speculate being in a foregone conclusion race probably helps limit the scrutiny on how you spend it.