Nearly $1.6 million.

That’s the amount of money that’s been spent by outside groups on a single race in Minnesota Senate District 34, centered on Maple Grove, where Republican incumbent Warren Limmer is facing a challenge by DFLer Bonnie Westlin.

Not including the candidate’s own spending, Westlin has benefited from just over $1 million in spending by independent expenditure groups, while Limmer has benefited from $565,000. The money has gone heavily toward direct mail, cable ads, digital ads and social media.

Based on reports filed this week with the state Campaign Finance Board, a total of $24 million in independent expenditures has been spent on Minnesota legislative races through Oct. 19, the cutoff for this final pre-election report. Of that, state Senate races have accounted for two-thirds of total spending, with groups affiliated with the DFL accounting for two-thirds of that money. That reflects a recent trend of Democrats having a more-successful fundraising apparatus and the 2020 focus on Minnesota’s upper legislative chamber, where Republicans have a 35-32 majority.

The charts for this story try to use spending to show the state of the races that are likely to determine control of the Legislature, particularly the Senate. The darker-colored districts are in the Twin Cities suburbs, where Limmer and Westlin live, and in urban centers in Greater Minnesota. Two GOP held seats in Rochester are hotspots as is one is St. Cloud.

Note: Hover over districts in the chart below to see spending to benefit candidates in that district. Spending excludes money attached to primary election losers, but may include money spent pre-primary to help or hurt primary election winners.

Based on the latest reports to the state Campaign Finance Board, the race in Senate District 34 is not only the most expensive race, it illustrates most of the dynamics of the 2020 election, which has seen spending focused on a handful of state Senate seats deemed most likely to either help the GOP defend its slim majority or give the DFL control of that chamber.

The spending in SD34 has also motivated by interest groups that have tried and failed to get legislation through the Senate, bills that often falter in Limmer’s Judiciary and Public Safety Finance Committee. Finally, the money comes from independent and party funds that take campaign messaging decisions away from the candidates themselves.

The GOP-affiliated independent expenditure committee Advance Minnesota has spent $184,000 against Westlin, while Limmer’s entire campaign spending as of the last report was $43,000. In turn, the DFL-affiliated Alliance for a Better Minnesota has spent $207,500 against Limmer and $101,000 to support Westlin, while her own campaign, though better funded than Limmer’s, had spent $124,500.

Advance Minnesota and ABM are just two committees out of dozens that have spent heavily on Minnesota legislative races this year. While donations to candidates are capped by law, there are no caps for donations to political funds and party committees. And candidates who are accepting some state subsidy, as most do, agree to limits on their spending. This year, the Campaign Finance Board distributed a little more than $2 million among 347 candidates for the Legislature.

Both the contribution caps and spending caps for individual candidates contribute to the trend toward spending by political committees instead of candidates.

DFL funds are outspending GOP funds in all but a few races, which is not a new phenomenon. The DFL has outspent the GOP by two-to-one margins in recent elections. Both sides generally align on where money needs to be spent to be most effective. There are, however, some notable financial mismatches. Republican groups are spending heavily to defend Sen. Rich Draheim of Madison Lake (District 20) and Sen. Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids (District 5) and to try to take out Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent of Woodbury (District 53). In all three races, DFL-leaning groups aren’t spending nearly as much.

On the DFL side, party supporters are spending a lot to help Sen. Jerry Newton of Coon Rapids (District 37), but GOP groups aren’t spending much to help challenger Brad Sanford.

The biggest spending totals are in Senate battleground districts. That doesn’t suggest, however, that there aren’t House races attracting lots of outside spending. After a near sweep of contested races in 2018, the DFL now has more seats to defend. As with the Senate, those races are in the Twin Cities suburbs and in a handful of Greater Minnesota districts where DFLers managed to win in places that went for President Trump two years earlier.

But the bigger money races contain few surprises, and are led by Shelly Christensen vs. Joe Garofalo in the east metro’s House District 39B, Kaela Jo Berg vs. Roz Peterson in 56B (covering Burnsville and parts of Lakeville) and Brad Tabke vs. Erik Mortensen in 55A (Shakopee). All three were swing districts in 2018 and all narrowly won by DFL candidates. Note: the DFL House spending chart has been updated to reflect an amended report.

As of the latest filing, the state DFL has raised $9.3 million, the House DFL caucus raised $4.5 million and the Senate DFL caucus has raised $5.6 million. The state GOP has raised $831,000, the House GOP caucus has raised $1.36 million and the Senate GOP caucus has raised $1.96 million.