US President George W. Bush, Sen-ator John Kerry and their political parties spent more than US$120 million in the first two weeks of this month, running through an average of about US$9 million a day.
Kerry spent almost US$15 million and Bush spent about US$14.5 million, hurling TV commercials and mail advertisements at voters in an effort to pull ahead, according to reports filed on Thursday. But the money was minimal compared with what the political parties spent, to say nothing of what advocacy groups were spending as well.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC)spent about US$51.5 million, aides said, and the Republican National Committee (RNC)reported spending almost US$43 million. Advocacy groups spent tens of millions of dollars more on commercials and mailings.
"This is big business at its biggest," said Tony Coelho, a Democratic strategist. "A lot more people are playing with huge dollars."
Thursday's reports show that both sides are applying their resources when and where money arguably has the most impact: the final weeks in battleground states.
"Their worst nightmare is waking up with money in the account" after Nov. 2, said Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project. "You don't worry about efficiency at this point."
The reports to the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service, which cover Oct. 1 to Oct. 13, are the last major look the public will get at the candidates' financing before the election.
Bush's campaign had more than US$22 million on hand on Oct. 13, and the RNC had about US$53 million in the bank, reports show. Kerry had about US$24.5 million and the DNC had more than US$24 million.
Both presidential campaigns are using public financing and are no longer raising money, though the political parties were still raising millions of dollars.
The RNC brought in more than US$24 million in the first two weeks of this month, reports show, and the DNC about US$34 million, a committee spokesman said.
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