Presidential campaign nears record-shattering $2 billion spending mark

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2012 has broken all records in presidential fundraising: Never before any candidate has raised and spent as much as in this year’s election campaign. The next milestone: Both candidates are about to hit the $1 billion mark.

According to OpenSecrets, the “red team” – this means Romney, the Republican party and outside spenders – lead the money race having spent over $989 million on campaigning. Obama’s blue team is just little behind: altogether over $928 million.

So, how do these numbers break down?

Mitt Romney has raised $389 million, got an additional $284 million from the party and $369 million from outside spenders, which is the largest portion of his funds.

Barack Obama has raised way more money: $632 million came from his donors. So far, he only spent $540 million of that amount. In addition to that came $263 million from the national party and $124 million from outside spenders.

Romney gets around 80 percent of his money from large individual contributions, while one-third of Obama’s funds come from small individual donations.

We’ll have to wait until after the election to see how much — and how — the campaigns and their Super PAC allies spend in the final days of the campaign.