Outside Money Rules in Colorado Senate Race

With all the outside campaign money being thrown around, which race has gotten the most? We can tell you: it's the Bennet v. Buck race for Colorado Senate. As of this week, the race has attracted nearly $30 million in "outside" funding.

Money spent by outside groups that is not directly given to the candidate qualifies as outside funding. That means that California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's internal contributions -- she has put more than $140 million of her own money toward her campaign -- doesn't qualify. 

According to "Open Secrets," the biggest outside spenders include the Democrat's and the Republican's Senate Campaign Committees and a non-party group: The DSCC ($6.4 million), the NRSC ($4 million), and American Crossroads ($4.7 million). Republican challenger Ken Buck has gotten exactly twice as much from outside groups ($2.6 million) as has Michael Bennet ($1.3 million). For the record, a local poll says the race is a dead heat: each candidate has 47% support.

Sharyl Attkisson

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News investigative correspondent based in Washington.

Twitter