Spending on Campaign TV Ads Expected to Break Record

How many television commercials can $3 billion buy? Enough to set a record for political spending on TV ads this election cycle, which is on track to hit $3 billion by the November election, breaking the previous highs of roughly $2.7 billion in 2008 and $2.4 billion in 2006.

As of last week, spending for federal candidates had already hit the $223 million mark, $90 million more than the $133 million spent by the same point in the 2006 midterms, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which monitors political advertising. State candidates, meanwhile, have already poured almost $380 million into their television buys, $68 million more than they'd spent at this point in 2006. Those candidate numbers don't include political ads bought for this campaign by special interest and issue advocacy groups. And with the election less than a month away, those numbers are only going to increase as the advertising intensifies, said Evan Tracey, president of the analysis group. He said that roughly 75 percent of all advertising spending comes in the last 60 days, and of that, roughly 60 percent comes in the last 30 days, a period that just began.