EDITORIAL : SPIN DOCTORS AT WORK COST OF CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS CONTRASTED WITH SPENDING ON BARBIE DOLLS.

A brief news release faxed to our office Friday challenged the widely held notion that political campaigns, especially at the national level, are too expensive.

Titled ``Campaign Reform: Is Too Much Really Spent on Political Speech?'' it notes that while total congressional campaign spending in 1993-94 amounted to $724 million, annual sales for the Barbie doll line were $1 billion.

The cost of California Republican Michael Huffington's unsuccessful 1994 race for the U.S. Senate was $29 million. In contrast, Sony Music's budget to promote a Michael Jackson compact disc was $30 million.

And whereas total spending on the 1991-92 election cycle was $3.2 billion, $4.5 billion is spent annually in the United States on potato chips.

And the source of this information? Why it was the AAPC, otherwise known as the American Association of Political Consultants.

We can understand why the people who earn a living from campaign spending believe the expense is trivial when compared with what Americans spend on other things. But thanks in part to truth-in-advertising laws, people who buy Barbie dolls, CDs and potato chips generally know what they are getting. That's frequently not the case with the candidates who are groomed and packaged by free-spending political consultants.

It's amazing, isn't it, what some people can come up with when they compare apples and oranges?