Mitt Romney emerged from Super Tuesday the winner of a majority of delegates -- 208 -- from the 11 states that went to vote. Winning those delegates, though, cost both his campaign and a super PAC supporting him a pretty penny on television advertisements. His campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future combined to spend $36,380 on advertising per delegate won on Tuesday.
Television advertising is usually the biggest expense of a presidential campaign. This year candidates have seen that spending augmented, or in many cases, wholly outsourced, to allied super PACs that are not subject to fundraising limitations. On Super Tuesday, the candidates and the super PACs that support them combined to spend a little more than $12 million on television advertising, according to NBC First Read.
Newt Gingrich and Winning Our Future, the super PAC that supports his candidacy, spent the most on television ads per delegate -- slightly higher than former Massachusetts Gov. Romney -- with a rate of $38,541 per delegate won. Former House Speaker Gingrich's campaign and Winning Our Future spent $2.775 million on television ads across the 11 Super Tuesday states -- mostly paid for by the super PAC and concentrated in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee -- to win 72 delegates.
Last night's runner-up, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), combined with the super PAC Red White And Blue Fund to spend $1.596 on television ads, almost entirely concentrated in Ohio. He spent $19,000 for each of the 84 delegates won on Super Tuesday.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) brought up the rear with very little television spending and the fewest number of delegates. His campaign and the super PAC aligned with it, Endorse Liberty, spent only $102,000 on ads in the Super Tuesday states and took home 21 delegates.
