Key Findings:

• In an analysis of expenditure data for the 2003-04 federal races, the Center for Public Integrity found that nearly half of all campaign spending went to political consultants.

• In total, about 600 professional consultants were paid $1.78 billion for their campaign work. Media consultants received the bulk of this spending at nearly $1.2 billion, followed by direct mail consultants who were paid $298 million, and finally fundraising consultants who received $59 million.