State and federal candidates and their political committees spent more than $175 million during the 2012 election season. While many candidates had little or no general election competitions, others had to spend up to $60 a vote to secure victory in districts with tiny voting populations.

The biggest per-vote spender in a legislative race was House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, who spent $3.2 million and won 50,408 votes, a cost of $63.67 per vote. But Straus had no major party opposition, and $500,000 of his expenditure total was a transfer of funds to his officeholder ...

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