What Did Meg Whitman's $99 Million Buy?

This story comes courtesy of California Watch

By Chase Davis

By now, we all know Meg Whitman has spent enough on her gubernatorial campaign to run some small countries - $99 million and counting - while Jerry Brown, playing the pauper, has spent a little more on his entire campaign than Whitman has spent on postage (yes, really).

But now that campaign spending has hit high gear, it's time to ask again: What exactly does $99 million buy?

Lots of TV and radio spots, it turns out. More than half of Whitman's spending so far - about $55 million - has gone into TV and radio buys. Payments to consultants are also fast approaching $10 million, with at least 56 different firms getting a cut of the action.

She has spent about $14 million since the June primary - most of it on media buys.

California Watch created a quick visualization that shows Whitman's spending so far. For reference, the two little, unlabeled yellow bubbles at the bottom, which account for postage and campaign schwag, actually represent a little less than the $633,000 Brown has spent overall.