Fair Wisconsin spends "nightmarish" amounts

Turns out the campaign finance pundits were right: election spending is out of control:

The campaigns for and against a constitutional ban on gay marriage spent a total of nearly $5 million, apparently the most ever spent on a statewide referendum.

Does that count as a "nightmarish" amount, I wonder? Or not, since the referendum commerials - while extremely misleading on one side - weren't necessarily "negative?"

Vote Yes for Marriage drew in $468,000 in the final reporting period of the campaign on the amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions, for a total of $635,000 for the campaign...

Fair Wisconsin drew in $465,000 in the final days for a total of $4.3 million...

That kind of spending differential makes an absolute mockery of our system of elections.