💰 The race for R.I. governor is getting really expensive

A slice of Gregg's six-layer Death by Chocolate cake.Gregg's Facebook page

Today only: I have a pair of Sunday tickets to the Newport Jazz Festival that I want to give to a Rhode Map reader. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail, and I’ll select a winner at random by 3 p.m.

Campaigns are expensive endeavors, what with all the television ads, yard signs, and mail ballot gurus the candidates have to pay.

Then again, there’s a tastier way to spend all that money.

If the Democratic candidates for governor in Rhode Island were to pool all of the money that they’re setting aside for traditional campaign expenses, they’d be able to buy multiple slices of Death by Chocolate cake from Gregg’s for almost every registered voter in the state.

New filings with the Board of Elections show that incumbent Governor Dan McKee, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, former secretary of state Matt Brown, and health care advocate Dr. Luis Daniel Muñoz have already combined to spend nearly $6 million on their campaigns.

And that’s before you throw in likely Republican nominee Ashley Kalus, who is prepared to spend more than $1 million on her bid for the state’s top job.

If you consider that a slice of Death by Chocolate cake is $10.54 on DoorDash, that means the Democratic candidates could buy 543,661 slices. There are 709,000 active registered voters in the state, but only around 517,000 residents voted for president in 2020, and turnout this year isn’t likely to come close to that number – especially in the Democratic primary.

Here’s a look how much the five Democrats have reported spending and their pending expenditures in the current election cycle.

Helena Foulkes

Amount spent and pending: $3.3 million

Slices of Death by Chocolate: 314,703

Nellie Gorbea

Amount spent and pending: $1.1 million

Slices of Death by Chocolate: 108,151

Dan McKee

Amount spent and pending: $949,000

Slices of Death by Chocolate: 90,043

Matt Brown

Amount spent and pending: $324,240

Slices of Death by Chocolate: 30,762

Dr. Luis Daniel Muñoz

Amount spent and pending: $14,600

Slices of Death by Chocolate: 1,388

This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, data about the coronavirus in the state, and more. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.