While the final figures are still being tallied, the 2012 election cycle is certain to go down as the most expensive ever.
The Center for Responsive Politics estimates the total cost at $6 billion. That figure includes the typical largess of business executives and wealthy insiders, but a bigger piece of the pie is now supplied directly by companies, labor unions, and business-supported entities, freed to make unlimited donations by the 2010 Supreme Court decision on the Citizens United case.
