SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. Senate election between Mike Lee and Evan McMullin could be three or four times more expensive than any other Senate race in Utah's history.
Lee, the Republican who won his third term in the Senate last week, spent $9.7 million through mid-October. McMullin, who was not affiliated with a party, spent $5.8 million.
But, according to Open Secrets, that’s just what the campaigns spent.
Outside groups — political action committees and so-called “super PACs” — spent $19.2 million. The majority of that also favored Lee.
“The super PACs crowd out almost all other advertising,” said David Magleby, a professor emeritus of political science at Brigham Young University.
“These people will have unusual access to the successful candidate,” Magleby said, “And the successful candidate will remember that when they're in the next tight race.”
Losing candidates, too, Magleby said, will want that money again should they choose to run in the future.
The biggest outside spender was a Washington-based super PAC called Club For Growth Action, which supports conservatives. It spent $5.4 million on ads like the one in which McMullin appeared to call Republicans “racists” and “bigots.”
Independent fact-checkers have said the remarks were edited out of context. McMullin filed a lawsuit against the super PAC and TV stations that broadcast the ad, including FOX 13 News.
Crypto Freedom PAC spent $3.1 million attacking McMullin. It is a Washington organization and supports candidates favoring the cryptocurrency industry.
McMullin got PAC money, too. Put Utah First PAC spent $4.5 million attacking Lee. Put Utah First is registered in Salt Lake City.
The best-available data on Open Secrets shows the previously-most-expensive Senate race in Utah was Orrin Hatch’s final campaign in 2012. That race consumed about $11.5 million – almost all of it for Hatch.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which candidate Crypto Freedom PAC spent to opposed.