An interesting factoid about Election 2008:

One thing that should end on Wednesday morning is the sound of money being spend on electioneering from independent groups on the right and the left.

And when it does, and someone does the final tally, there are estimates that around $400 million will have been spent by these outside groups.

The Campaign Finance Institute, a Washington research group that analyzes campaign finance data, has studied all the outside money poured into the Presidential race along with the House and Senate races, and where that money came from.

They found a few interesting trends: More than $180 million will have been spent by so-called “527 groups,” which are named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that regulates them. Most of this money was spent by groups that support Democrats. While this is a large sum, it is far less than the $338 million spent by 527 groups in the 2004 race.

And yet for all the worry about another "Swift Boat" group, it turns out that Big Labor was the biggest spender:

The biggest 527 activity this year came from unions like AFSCME and the SEIU. In all, since the presidential race began in January 2007, Democratic-supporting 527 groups spent $133 million, while Republican ones spent $49 million, according to the Institute.

Guess we'll see where a President Obama comes down on "card check."