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US poll spending to top $2.6bn
24/10/2006 22:17 - (SA)
Washington - The November 7 congressional race will be the most-expensive midterm election yet, with spending reaching about $2.6bn, said a non-partisan group that tracks US campaign spending.
The year "2006 will be the most-expensive election for US congress", said Sheila Krumholz, acting executive director of the Centre for Responsive Politics which tracks the influence of money on elections and public policy.
The group's research has found that spending by candidates in the November 2006 race represents an 18% increase on the last midterm congressional election in 2002.
"Money in this campaign has been flowing fast and furiously," said Krumholz on Tuesday in a telephone news conference.
She said the $2.6bn spending projection was a "conservative estimate" that could turn out to be even higher by election day.
"Candidates still in the running for house have raised on average about $760 000, while senate candidates have raised $5.8m since 2001," Krumholz said of the study released exactly two weeks before election day.
"Incumbent senators have a four-to-one advantage on their challengers on average; house incumbents have out-raised their challengers seven-to-one," she said.
The biggest individual donors - in descending order according to the size of their contributions - are lawyers and law firms, the real-estate industry, Wall Street and contributors who list their occupation as "retired".
- AFP
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