Republicans won the Florida special House election on the cheap after going up early.
GOP groups spent $1.1 million less than their rivals during the campaign for the 13th district seat, according to Smart Media Group, a Republican ad-buying firm which put together a graph of the race’s spending.
Ahead of the March 11 vote, Democrat Alex Sink and her allies spent about $5.5 million compared with now-Rep. David Jolly and GOP-aligned groups which spent $4.4 million.
The bulk of the Democratic money came from the DCCC, which spent more than $2.16 million on the losing effort while the House Majority PAC and League of Conservation Voters spent more than $1.1 million combined.
Their spending focused on broadcast outlets, which took in 78 percent of their buys compared with 22 percent going up on cable. A small amount was allocated to radio by the Sink campaign. Jolly and his allies, meanwhile, put 73 into broadcast and 23 into cable.
Jolly’s campaign, which started running ads in December, was outspent by Sink’s by a 3-to-1 margin. The Republican directly spent about $609,000 compared with $2.1 million for the Democrat. Sink also spent the bulk of her money in the four weeks before last Tuesday’s vote.
Jolly won the seat, formerly held by the late Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), by less than 2 percent. The Republican’s side spent a total of $49.39 per vote while Sink spent $64.22, according to SMG.