Welcome to the $4 billion election

This year’s midterm election will be the most expensive in history, with almost $4 billion in total spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

The group estimates that candidates and parties will spend about $2.7 billion, with outside groups chipping in almost $900 million in the battle for control of the House and Senate.

{mosads}While both parties are spending a fortune, the CRP projects that GOP candidates, committees and outside groups will have a slight edge. The analysis found about $1.92 billion will be spent helping Republican candidates, compared to $1.76 billion for Democrats.

Republican candidates have significantly outspent Democrats on their own, doling out about $456 million compared to $349 million. The CRP predicts that Republicans will hold that lead through Election Day, spending about $944 million compared to the Democrats’ $719 million.

The group said it based the projections on recent spending patterns, as well as by studying spending during the 2010 midterm elections. The CRP said it will release updated figures with spending through September sometime next week.

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So far, outside groups spent about $663 million in the 2014 cycle, and the center estimates that there will be at least another $233 million spent in the election’s home stretch. While conservative outside groups so far are outspending liberal groups, the CRP predicts that liberals will have the lead by Election Day.

But thanks to disclosure rules that allow some campaign spending to go unreported, the center estimates that more than $100 million in spending has gone uncounted, mostly from conservative outside groups. That further complicates their estimations and could cancel out the liberal outside groups’ spending lead.