Watchdog · Who gets paid

The firms behind the ads.

Every dollar a campaign or super PAC spends ends up with someone: media buyers, ad makers, mail houses, pollsters and consultants. These are the 43 biggest payees we can trace, $125M in all.

Same firm on both sides of a race? That shows up here.

Payments are the largest disbursements reported by each group or campaign, from public compilations of FEC filings and from Ledger. A firm paid by a super PAC is doing ordinary work; this list shows who, not wrongdoing.