Oct 27, 2010

Study: Midterm spending could hit $4 billion

07:42 PM

Spending to influence next week's congressional elections could approach $4 billion, shattering records for midterm contests, a study released today by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics shows. By comparison, political spending hit $2.85 billion in 2006, the last midterm election.


"We knew this election could make spending history, but the rate of growth is stunning," said Sheila Krumholz, the center's director.

Democratic candidates and their party committees combined have collected roughly the same amount as their Republican counterparts in the sprint to Election Day. But conservative outside groups are outpacing liberal organizations in independent spending by a more than 2-to-1 margin, the group found.

Center officials said two forces are driving the spending -- the highly competitive nature of this year's election and recent federal court rulings that opened the door to unlimited spending by corporations and unions for ads that call for the election or defeat of candidates.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... midterms/1