Spending in the California Senate race has hit record levels

California’s marquee Senate race has already become the most expensive in the state’s history.

That eye-popping tidbit is courtesy of AdImpact, the ad-tracking and spending service used by POLITICO and many campaigns.

The primary between Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, and Republican former major leaguer Steve Garvey, has had nearly 250 percent more spending than the last three California Senate races combined.

It makes sense, right? The seat once held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein is massively coveted. And Sen. Alex Padilla short-circuited the standard process thanks to an appointment by Gov. Gavin Newsom, before being duly elected by the people of California in 2022.

But still, the spending is staggering. And it’s made even more astonishing when you consider that California is a deeply blue state and that the outcome won’t have any bearing on Senate control.

California’s Senate race spending is so large that it makes up more than half of the state’s total spending in the March 5 primary, per AdImpact.

However, there have been more expensive governor’s races in the Golden State. In 2010, 2018 and certainly the 2021 recall. And ballot measures have consistently ranked amount the highest-spending races in the country.

In this year’s Senate contest, polls show Schiff — the biggest, big-spender— consistently in the lead, with Porter and Garvey battling for second place. Lee is trailing far behind.

While Garvey’s own spending has been meager, Schiff has opened up his wallet and treated him to tens of millions in TV, digital ads and mailers.

Schiff has spent and benefitted from $44.8 million in ads, while Porter has $18.6 million in ad support.

AdImpact also looked at the ads by broad category and found that both Schiff and Porter mentioned housing the most in their broadcast ads.

After housing, one of the state’s thorniest issues, Schiff’s ads mentioned jobs, Donald Trump, unions and the economy. Porter’s biggest-used categories were special interests, healthcare and the environment.

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