Consultants, Ads Cost Mega Millions

Both the Clinton and Obama teams have spent significant amounts to hire longtime campaign consultants. The Strategy Group, which Obama's team has paid nearly $2 million, has worked on every Democratic presidential campaign since Bill Clinton's first bid, in 1992.

Peter Giangreco, a partner at the group, said the consulting firm "works hand in glove" with the Obama campaign to orchestrate media, direct mail "and the way we talk to voters." Several of the group's partners have worked on earlier campaigns with David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

Among the Clinton campaign's top-paid consultants are her chief strategist, Mark Penn, whose firm received more than $4.1 million over the past year, and Mandy Grunwald, whose firm, Grunwald Communications, was paid more than $1.5 million.

Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani, who left the race this week, even directed some of his campaign's resources to his own consulting firms. The Giuliani campaign paid the Giuliani Partners consulting firm more than $60,000 for rent and paid Giuliani Security & Safety about $300,000 to protect the candidate on the campaign trail.

Larry Levy, the Giuliani campaign lawyer, said the rent payments to the partnership were intended to reimburse the firm for meetings held there. And the payments to both consulting entities will not pad Giuliani's pockets, Levy said. "He recused himself from taking profits. His portion would be donated to charity."

Staff writer Jose Antonio Vargas and database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.