The battle for the Senate has proved a boon to broadcasters
as campaign spending in key battleground states has skyrocketed in the waning
days of the campaign, including from Super PACs and other
outside groups.
According to The Sunlight Foundation's latest figures, at
the end of August, those outside groups had spent $32.9 million on Senate
races. In September they spent an additional $55.7 million, and already in
October more than $100 million.
Of that $100 million, about $34.5 million went to TV ad time
buys and production costs, according to Sunlight reporting on Federal Election
Commission data.
While Virginia and Ohio are two of the key swing states in
the presidential election, they are also drawing a crowd of outside dollars for
Senate contests.
Virginia leads all outside spending on Senate races with
$29.7 million; followed by Ohio at $24.6 million; Wisconsin at $22.2 million;
Nevada at $18.5 million; and Montana at $16.3 million, about a third of which
is going to TV stations for ad time.
In Cleveland, for example, on just one station -- Fox
affiliate WOIO -- ads for a single candidate in October so far have totaled
$150,000.
