THE EARLY 20th-century Republican boss Mark Hanna famously said: "There are two things that matter in politics. The first is money. I can't remember the second."

The recent race for an open House of Representative seat from the new North Bay-North Coast Second Congressional District verified Hanna's observation.

It also proved the corollary that while sufficient money is necessary to be in contention, it doesn't guarantee victory.

Money buys name identification. Once that's accomplished, candidates need something special to turn them into winners.

Example One is San Rafael high-tech millionaire Stacey Lawson. She decided her first effort in public life would be a run for Congress. With her own cash and help from wealthy friends, Lawson put $1,123,783 into her rookie effort.

She out-raised everyone, yet finished a disappointing fourth with 16,943 votes.

That's an eye-popping $66.32 per vote. Lawson made failed 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman look prudent. The ex-eBay CEO spent $43.53 per vote compared to Jerry Brown's $7.

Like Whitman, with zero prior civic involvement, Lawson never captured the public's imagination and foundered when under attack.

The most frugal congressional candidate was Cotati Republican Mike Halliwell. While he managed a distant sixth place finish with 10,008 votes, he spent just $3,500, or 35 cents a vote.

The top three candidates were all cost-effective and the better campaigners. Liberal Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, with a long history in North Bay politics, easily finished first, spending $991,270 or $15.51 per vote. He captured 37.5 percent of vote and what will be a safe Democratic seat in Congress.

Tiburon Republican Dan Roberts spent $179,568 for a second place finish. He spent $7 each on his 25,684 votes.

He bumped "Peace & Justice" Democrat Norman Solomon out of the "top-two" runoff in November by just 173 votes.

Solomon spent $730,548, or $28.44 for each vote he received.

Was all that money worth it?

For Huffman, Roberts and even Solomon it was. Not so for Lawson, Marin Supervisor Susan Adams and Petaluma Councilmember Tiffany Renee.

With his strong first-place showing Huffman made himself the prohibitive favorite to carry the solidly blue district in November. Getting a ticket to Washington from this district is winning the political jackpot.

The mostly self-funded Roberts had realistic goals. He wanted a platform for his fiscally conservative, socially libertarian views and to make certain local Republicans had a place in the general election. He spent just enough to get the message to GOP voters that he was the only conservative who could make the runoff.

Solomon will forever kick himself thinking that if he had walked in just one more parade, he would have captured the votes he needed to top Roberts. Still, with far left-of-center Rep. Lynn Woolsey retiring, Solomon becomes the torchholder for North Bay progressives.

Lawson's brief time on the public stage is probably finished. For Adams and Renee, it was a double whammy. They found themselves out-of-the-money while exposing electoral weaknesses in their home bailiwicks.

Adams earned second place and 14.85 percent of the vote in her San Rafael-centered supervisorial District. That's better than her district-wide 8.2 percent tally, but not impressive given that Huffman won 44.36 percent in Adams' own home political turf. That showing will encourage rivals when her third term expires in 2014.

If the up-and-coming progressive Renee believed that running for Congress would be a free ride getting her name out to a broader electorate, she erred. When any candidate ends up with 1.8 percent of the vote and only 5.9 percent in their hometown, it's a discouraging sign for someone trying to move up the political ladder.
