Ohio in top three for outside campaign ad spending

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Campaign ad spending means big money and new national numbers crunched by NBC show how much of that money comes from outside political groups.

So far, overall spending by both campaigns in just over $605 million, and 44 percent of that comes from outside groups, totaling $266.7 million.

Each campaign spends millions on their own cause, with Obama's team shelling out $206.9 million for campaign ads, not enough to match Mitt Romney's $318 million.

But the real eye opener comes when you break down how much money outside groups have spent on ads per campaign. They've contributed $57.4 million to Obama's ad spending, that's about 20 percent of that campaign's total expenditures on campaign ads. However, outside groups have paid $212.4 million for Romney's campaign ads, that's 67 percent of the team's ad spending.

The numbers were compiled by NBC and ad-buying firm SMG Delta.

Ohio is seeing much of the product of all that spending. It's in the top three states seeing outside spending. Florida is number one, followed by Ohio and Virginia.