What could it possibly say about a candidate who spends $7.5M of his own money in order to win a Senate primary?

I concede that Sarah Steelman’s (Palin’s endorsed U.S. Senate Candidate) opponent in this race must be a successful businessman.  He has accumulated a lot of wealth and I am sure he has his strong points.

But in order to catch up to Steelman and eventually surpass her in many polls, Brunner; who came into the picture much later than Steelman had, began spending mammoth amounts of his own cash on negative attack ads on Sarah Steelman just as David Dewhurst had to do in Texas.

Meanwhile, Steelman was out working the pavement and shaking hands with voters from all over Missouri.

While Brunner has held a lead over Steelman (the last poll has him six points ahead), it has to be noted that Steelman has spent a grand total of $800K of her own money on her campaign as opposed to Brunner’s $7.5M.

Undoubtedly, the six-point lead Brunner holds over Steelman is an expensive one.  With Palin’s endorsement combined with Steelman’s earnest efforts to get to know the voters, Steelman is poised to provide a real challenge despite being massively outspent.

Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, this single race alone (along with Fischer’s in Nebraska and Cruz in Texas) proves that Governor Palin does not jump behind the one who appears to be a shoe-in for a win as some of her critics contend.  This is going to be a significant challenge, and the fact that Steelman was outspent to this degree (as Cruz was in Texas), including Brunner spending $2.5M alone in July continues to show the power of Palin’s endorsement which occurred the same month for Steelman.

If you’d like to contribute to the Steelman surge, you can help her here.  To read more about Steelman being outspent, click here.