The $78 million total adds up to more than $20 per vote, and more than doubles the previous record for a Wisconsin federal election.

Many voters insisted these ads had no impact on them. And some avowed that, when it came to them, the ads backfired. But Mike McCabe suspects these airwave-borne toxins are infecting the body politic “more than people realize or are willing to acknowledge.”

Wisconsin’s status as a battleground state was reaffirmed in thousands of 30-second increments. The money flowed fast and furious. Yet all this spending brought little change.

President Barack Obama returned to Madison today to rally his supporters to cast their votes tomorrow to help “finish what we started” with his election four years ago.

Already these expenditures by outside groups, coupled with prodigious spending by the candidates, make this the most expensive U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin history.

In Wisconsin, the thirstiest race for independent spending is between Tommy Thompson and Tammy Baldwin for the state’s open Senate seat.

About $8 million in independent expenditures by outside groups were reported through Sept. 13, putting the Wisconsin Senate race in third place among federal elections this fall, behind only the presidential race and a Senate battle in Texas.

If words matter, and they ought to, “lobbyist” is not the right one to apply to Tommy Thompson.