Signal Mountain Republican Tommy Crangle spent more than $133,000 of his own money running for East Tennessee's open 3rd Congressional District seat in the Aug. 5 primary, finishing a distant fifth.
He received only 5,149 votes in the 11-person GOP field, meaning each vote cost him about $26 out of his own pocket.
Yet the 65-year-old engineer, who worked as a senior adviser on electricity for the Iraqi government, said he would do it again because of his desire to serve the United States.
"I went to Iraq and risked my life," he said last week. "Risking a little money is not that big of a deal."
Crangle and other candidates who spend their own money and lose are far more common than high-profile office seekers who put their cash on the line and win, political experts say.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said a study has shown that only about one in 10 self-funders wins.
"It always helps to have more money than less," he said, but added, "Money cannot buy the election, no matter what the public thinks."
In other words, for every Bob Corker who spends $4.169 million in personal wealth to claim a U.S. Senate seat, 10 Art Rhodes-type candidates spend $75,000 and don't win.
Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, defeated Democrat Harold Ford in 2006 for the open Senate seat. Rhodes, chairman of the Church of God Benefits Board in Cleveland, Tenn., was in the group that lost to Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann in the 3rd District GOP primary.
Fleischmann, one of those who beat the self-funding odds, spent more than $700,000 of his own money, including $100,000 in the final week.
He faces Democrat John Wolfe in the Nov. 2 general election. Wolfe did not raise the $5,000 minimum required to file a Federal Election Commission report by the June 30 second-quarter filing deadline.
"In the beginning (of a race), putting your own money in it says you're real," said Fleischmann's chief strategist, Chip Saltsman, a Nashville consultant who ran former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 national presidential bid. "In the end, it gets you some advertising time."
A survey of "millionaire candidates" by opensecrets.org, a website that tracks money in politics, found that of 51 U.S. House and Senate candidates who self-funded in 2008, 40 lost or dropped out.
That year, Democrat Bill Jones, running in Georgia's 6th Congressional District north of Atlanta, put $500,000 of his own money into the race but lost by more than 2-to-1 to Republican Tom Price.
"Though they don't lack for money, self-funded candidates typically lose at the polls," the website, operated by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, concluded.
Tennessee governor's race
In the Tennessee governor's race, multimillionaires Bill Haslam, the Republican, and Democrat Mike McWherter partially have self-funded their campaigns.
SELF-FUNDING TOTALSTennessee's 3rd Congressional District* Chuck Fleischmann: $701,025* Tommy Crangle: $133,643* Art Rhodes: $75,000North Georgia's 9th Congressional District* Steve Tarvin: $286,253* Chris Cates: $250,000* Lee Hawkins: $240,118* Tom Graves: $40,303Source: Federal Election Commission
Haslam, the Knoxville mayor whose family owns the Pilot Corp. chain of travel centers, has put $1.45 million into the race so far. McWherter, a Jackson, Tenn., beer distributor and son of former Gov. Ned McWherter, has lent his campaign $1 million.
Haslam spokesman David Smith said the Republican nominee "received a record number of contributions from a record number of contributors for a record amount."
"He supplemented his campaign to preserve the investment his supporters made, and he reserves the right to defend himself and to set the record straight," Smith said.
McWherter's press secretary, Sam Claycombe, said, "Money plays a significant role in today's campaigns."
"However," he said, "it all comes down to delivering a message that resonates with the voters of Tennessee."
Saltsman agreed that even big-spending candidates have to connect with voters on a grass-roots level.
"You can't write a big check and not go to the events and go door to door," he said.
But big spenders can get media attention, experts note.
On the national stage, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, a Republican, has vowed to spend as much as $50 million from her own pocket to win a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut this fall.
Meg Whitman, a Republican and former eBay chief executive officer, is expected to spend as much as $150 million of her own money in the California governor's race.
Even so, other factors, including major national issues, often are bigger determinants in an election, Sabato said.
"The election results are determined by the issues, the candidate and the mood of the year," he said.
This year, Sabato said, the economy and political affiliation could play a role in votes' decisions.
"Republicans are going to do well," he said. "Democrats aren't."