Among the highlights of the following CMAG slides presented at the December 2 Cook Political Report subscriber briefing: Candidate and coordinated party - call it "candidate-driven" - advertising in 2012 accounted for a solid majority (nearly 60%) of all TV ad spending tracked by CMAG in federal races. So far in the 2016 cycle, however, candidate advertising (no coordinated party activity yet) only accounts for 16%.
Barring major changes in campaign finance law, the 2014 cycle may well turn out to be the last-ever election cycle in which candidate-driven spending accounted for a majority (52%) of all TV ad spending. From 2016 on, our federal elections will truly be awash in outside group ad spending. (Note, though, that because groups can be charged considerably higher rates than candidates, their dollars don't go nearly as far.) And a super PAC-powered Republican presidential primary has put us about one-fifth of the way (16) toward the total number of outside groups that advertised during in the entire 2012 presidential race (84). It seems likely we will surpass that 2012 total. CMAG's Mitchell
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