Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg
People gather to watch election coverage in Times Square in New York, on Nov. 6, 2012.
The final price tag on the 2012 elections:
$6.3 billion.
That’s according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which intially pegged the cost at $6 billion.
It’s still less than the $7 billion that Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub estimated when she took the gavel in January.
The center estimated that the presidential election cost $2.6 billion, and spending on congressional races exceeded $3.6 billion. Republican-leaning super-political action committees and other outside groups spent $455 million while Democratic groups spent $125 million. Likewise, Republican-leaning groups outspent Democratic-leaning organizations in House and Senate races as well, $275 million to $180 million.
