Midterms Set to Be History's Most Expensive Elections

This year's midterm elections are on course to become the most expensive in American history. Experts predict that campaign spending will top $5 billion by the time voters go to the polls, dwarfing the $1 billion spent on the 2008 presidential campaign and the $2.8 billion spent on 2006's midterms. GOP candidates received six times as much as Democrats last month in contributions, and the ratio is likely to rise to 10-1 this month, according to corporate spending tracker Public Citizen.

Spending has soared, the non-profit organization says, because of anonymous donations from Wall Street and health firms allowed to donate freely by a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. "We are going to see record amounts. This is the first year in which all limits are removed, Public Citizen's representative on Capitol Hill tells the Guardian. "The Supreme Court ruling reverses a century of political tradition in the US in which corporations are not supposed to get involved." (More campaign spending stories.)