Nearly $20 million spent on ads in Florida legislative races

Despite a never-ending flow of presidential ads during the election, nearly $20 million was also spent in Florida on ads targeting legislative races.

Final data shows that $19.4 million was spent over the last two years to air more than 33,000 commercials in races for the Florida Senate and Florida House. The vast majority of ads were run in state Senate races.

The biggest spender was a Republican political committee controlled by incoming Senate President Joe Negron. The GOP majority only lost one senate seat during the election.

The Center for Public Integrity analyzed data about political advertising on broadcast television from Kantar Media/CMAG, a media tracking firm that monitors media markets around the country.

These figures cover ads aired over the last two years and do not include ads for radio, online, direct mail or local cable TV ads.

Republished with permission of the Associated Press.