Who's funding Florida's Senate race?

Florida Senate candidates Marco Rubio and Patrick Murphy have received more than $24.8 million in donations from outside groups.

The amount of donations Florida's U.S. Senate has received is nowhere near the amount others states have seen.

Here's how the dollar amounts have been used thus far in the Senate race: $17.8 million attacking Murphy and $1.4 million supporting Rubio and on the other side, $4.9 million attacking Rubio and $752,000 supporting Murphy, according to Florida Politics.

In other words, 92 percent of the money has been used to bash the opposing candidate rather than create a media that lays out the candidate's policies. Meanwhile, 77 percent of these dollars are supporting Rubio.

The amount of money spent on negative advertising shouldn't come as a huge surprise, however it's important to note that when 92 percent of donation dollars are used criticize an opponent rather than recognize a candidate's qualities we're failing at an opportunity to educate people on the real issues.

Campaign advertisements aren't something people chose to consume, rather they're put in places consumers happen upon without choice.

But the polls don't reflect the dollars spent from outside donations. While Rubio is receiving such great amounts of donations in comparison to Murphy, he's only in a 4.7 lead, according to Real Clear Politics. I should point out, I also heard on NPR Murphy's father is budgeting most of his campaign expenses. Therefore, he's not relying as much on outside donors.

However, I'm wondering, in what spaces are these dollars put to use and who has access to them? 

Because I sense that millennials, often liberal leaning, might not be part of the audience consuming these negative advertisements, which could explain why Murphy is barely lagging in the polls even though his donations are so much less.

This goes back to an idea I've had that Republicans focus more on campaigning across as much geographic space as possible, because their voters are more spread out in rural place. So meanwhile, maybe Democrats are pursuing outreach through a different kind of space. For example, appearances on certain networks, partnership of ideas with other politically vocal people etc.

There isn't a lot of this comradery going on in the splintered Republican party at the moment.








Sources
http://floridapolitics.com/archives/224283-outside-groups-pour-24-million-florida-u-s-senate-race-mostly-aiding-marco-rubio

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/fl/florida_senate_rubio_vs_murphy-5222.html