Welcome to Meet the Press. I'm Carrie Dan and a Happy New Year to our regular

Lid listeners and a hearty welcome if you're a subscriber to the Chuck Todd

cast and you're hearing my voice for the first time in a little bit. The reason

for that is we're doing something a little different this new year. Every week

we're doing a deep dive into one little number that tells us something much

bigger about a big political story. Ready? Come on you were born ready. So here's

the number of the week. $667 million dollars. Hmm any guesses? Here's a hint. It's

the cost so far of something. Actually two somethings combined together. Two

Senate races to be specific which happened to be the top two most expensive

Senate races in US history at least when it comes to the amount of cash being

spent on TV and radio advertisements. And it turns out you don't have to go too

far back in history for those historic price tags because the two races I'm

talking about are the ones wrapping up this week. That's right you've got it.

The combined cost of TV ads for the two Georgia Senate races David Frodo

versus John Asuf and Kelly Laughler versus Raphael Warnock will end up being

more than $660 million. That's more than the most expensive painting ever sold

at auction a Leonardo da Vinci for you art history fans out there. It's more than

the average value of a major league hockey franchise in the NHL and it's more

than the gross domestic product of at least 10 countries. And for what? Well

sounds like a lot of this. I'm Kelly Laughler I approve this message. I'm David

Perdue and I approve this message. I'm Raphael Warnock and I'm John Asuf and we

approve this message. That enormous price tag is a sign of how high the stakes are

...