Spending by contestants and supporters in the US elections this year will be nearly $4 billion, the highest ever, a study released today said.
Spending will total $3.9 billion, including $1.2 billion for the presidential election, according to the study by the Centre for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan watchdog group. This compared to $3 billion in 2000.
The total is fueled largely by individual donors, who gave $2.5 billion to candidates and parties -- $1 billion more than in the 2000 election cycle.
The centre said the increase is the result of a doubling of the legal limit for individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates, even though changes in campaign finance law in 2002 were intended to beat back the influence of money in politics.
New to the money game are nominally independent "527" groups, so named after a section of the tax code. Such groups have filled the void left by the now-banned "soft money" contributions by businesses and unions to national political parties.
The centre estimates that these groups - among them, Moveon.Org, the Media Fund and Swift Vets and POWs for Truth - spent $386 million this cycle, including $187 million related to the presidential campaign.
The center said the presidential figure is a "very conservative" estimate because it does not include organizations called 501(c) groups, which are not required to disclose their contributions or spending.
Political action committees, set up by individuals or institutions to support their candidates or causes, also stepped up their spending, giving $384 million, more than $100 million more than in the previous cycle.
Candidates themselves appeared less willing to reach into their own pockets, giving $144 million, down from $205 million for 2000. But the center attributed the decline to the $48 million spent by Steve Forbes on his failed 2000 presidential campaign and to the $60 million former Goldman Sachs chairman
Mr John Corzine of New Jersey spent getting elected to the US Senate.