Is Kinder Juicing His Stats?

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is taking a victory lap today, touting an economic impact study commissioned and paid with his Tour funds that claims there was $38 million in Tour-related economic activity this year.

However, Kinder appears to be taking a few liberties in his announcement that "500,000 spectators were estimated to have watched the race." However, acording to the AP, Kinder's own study "concluded that 314,000 people watched the race" this year -- not 500,000.

It's not hard to understand why Kinder wants to paint the most flattering picture possible, but his language is misleading. He's using total attendance estimates, based on guesses of how many people saw the race on  multiple occasions. For instance, if 10 people attended 10 legs of the race, following Kinder's logic, it would be accurate to say that "100 spectators watched the race." 

Here's what The Post-Dispatch's Kathleen Nelson wrote about Kinder's fuzzy math:

I was at each start and each finish, so I could have been counted as 11 people. Anyone who watched from more than one spot probably was counted as more than one person, so the number of distinct individuals is smaller.

When the full study is published , it will also be interesting to see how the spending estimates were created.  I attended the Jefferson City leg, for instance, didn't spend any money, and don't think many of the people I saw had purchased jerseys or souvenirs either. That said, the money spent on the catering at the VIP tent could be skewing the economic impact data just a little.