From our Val-PAC desk

The hardworking staff recently trumpeted the estimated $9 billion price tag for the 2016 election cycle, but Bloomberg’s Al Hunt has a slight adjustment.

How Record Spending Will Affect 2016 Election

The role of money and politics in the 2016 presidential election is a conundrum.

Humongous sums will be spent; the effect on the outcome could be minimal, but in time the flood of cash may produce Watergate-level money scandals.

Spending by candidates, parties and outside groups and individuals may approach $10 billion. Both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, if they receive their parties’ nominations, each could spend more than $2 billion, about twice as much as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each forked out in 2012.

Hell, the Things Go Better with Koch brothers alone will probably spend $3o0 million.

As Matea Gold writes in the Washington Post:

Never before have so many people with so much money run for president

The 2016 Republican presidential contest, designed to be a tidy affair, is instead shaping up to be a chaotic, drawn-out slog, thanks largely to an expanding pool of rich patrons raining money on a broad field of candidates.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has raised tens of millions of dollars for his allied super PAC, collecting a historic amount, he told donors Sunday night. But that hasn’t been enough to stop his rivals from amassing their own stockpiles. A super PAC supporting Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida secured about $20 million in commitments in less than two weeks, according to people familiar with the totals. An independent operation backing Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says it pulled in $31 million in a single week. A new super PAC allied with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has almost matched that in pledges, fundraisers say.

Never have so many candidates entered a White House contest boosted by such huge sums. The financial arms race could fuel a protracted primary season similar to the one in 2012 — exactly what party leaders were hoping to avoid.

Helpful graphic:

Of course, all the undeclared candidates also have super PACs, so lots more to come.

Literally.

Nowadays, every politician is a PACifist, yeah?