$30M Spent On TV Ads In Louisiana's Latest Election Cycle

BATON ROUGE (AP) — More than $30 million was spent on TV political ads in Louisiana's recently-ended elections.

         An ad spending analysis released Thursday by the Center for Public Integrity shows two-thirds of the TV advertising dollars were spent on the governor's race. The data shows more than 54,000 TV commercials aired in that competition.

         Democrat John Bel Edwards won the election, defeating Republican David Vitter in the Nov. 21 runoff.

         TV ad spending in the race was nearly evenly split between candidates and outside political groups.

         Vitter's campaign paid the most on TV ads, $4.1 million, compared to Edwards' $3.2 million. A pro-Vitter super PAC poured $3.7 million into TV political ads, the heftiest sum among political action committees.

         The Center for Public Integrity analyzed data from Kantar Media/CMAG, a media tracking firm.