Congressional campaigns and outside groups wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on broadcast ads last cycle that did not reach voters in their district, according to Google and the digital firm Targeted Victory.
The two companies, which have a stake in seeing political broadcast budgets diminish, plotted broadcast ad spending in every congressional district from 2014, concluding that 75 percent of the $320 million spent on Congressional races was wasted. That is because broadcast markets and congressional districts almost never align — more of a problem in lower level races than a presidential campaign….
The groups estimated the most waste came in Illinois’s 10th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Robert Dold wrestled back his seat from Brad Schneider in a race decided by fewer than 3 percentage points.
It was estimated that 93 percent of the more than $19 million spent in the district by campaigns and outside groups ended up hitting people outside its borders. Read more…
