More than $283 million has so far been spent on TV advertisements promoting and attacking various candidates running in state-level races across the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity (CPI).
But surprisingly, the national total is actually a third less than "at a comparable point in 2010," reported CPI.
Since starting in June 2013, political advertisements aimed at influencing state-level races in 2014 elections have run "more than 540,000 times in 44 states," said CPI, "sucking up the equivalent of 195 days of airtime if run continuously."
State-level races have seen greater spending than U.S. Senate races, which were estimated to be at around $196 million.
The most spending has occurred in Pennsylvania, with an estimated $37.8 million spent, though citizens of Rhode Island have likely seen more ads, considering they led with the most spent per eligible voter, at $5.8 million.
Direct spending on advertisements by candidates themselves was actually higher than advertisements funded by non-candidate groups, by a 4-1 margin.
But CPI reported that more money was provided by independent non-candidate groups, more than 90 of which have spent $55 million to influence state-level races in 30 states. Non-candidate spending accounts for about 19 percent of state-level advertising dollars while similar advertisements accounted for only 12 percent in 2010.
This increase in spending by non-candidate committees can of course largely be attributed to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which gave unions and corporations the right to spend unlimited funds on favorable, or unfavorable, TV ads for candidates.
"Top spending independent groups so far are the Republican Governors Association at $11.4 million, Florida's conservative Let's Get to Work political committee ($10.8 million), the Democratic Governors Association ($5.1 million), the union-backed Illinois Freedom Political Action Committee ($4.9 million) and ... NextGen Climate Action Committee ($2.3 million), created by California hedge fund manager and environmentalist Tom Steyer," said CPI.
CPI analyzed data collected by the Campaign Media Analysts Group, which monitors television signals for political ads around the country and then uses a propriety formula to estimate how much it costs to place each ad. So while these figures may not match up exactly with the true cost, they can be thought of as a well-informed guess, said the CPI.