What Does The U.S. Look Like To Political Ad Buyers? [Infographic]

What Does The U.S. Look Like To SuperPACs? Adam Cole/NPR

With the popular vote so close this election, eyes are on swing states even more than usual. Now what if we showed, cartographically, how outside campaign spenders pour money into a race? No surprise: the money for political ads goes to the swingiest of states. Distort the country by per capita spending and it gets even more jarring.

Just add an old song (swing, of course) and you've got this excellent video from NPR (see below) showing what the U.S. looks like to superPACs and other groups during election season.

Sans video, it's a little like this.

First, the electoral college as it actually looks.

Map Of The Electoral College:  Adam Cole/NPR

Here the states have been resized proportionally based on their votes in the electoral college. They've also been reshaded according to how blue or red they leaned in the 2008 election. (Pure purple is a 50-50 split.)

U.S. By Electoral Votes:  Adam Cole/NPR

Now it's resized again based on outside ad spending from this election. The purplest states, you can see, get the attention.

Ad Spending Per State:  Adam Cole/NPR

Resize again based on spending per voter and it's even more skewed.

Ad Spending Per Voter:  Adam Cole/NPR

That's the U.S. until next week. Enjoy the courting while it still lasts, swing states.

[NPR]