PBS NewsHour reported that campaigns and their allies are making their closing arguments to voters, and that they have spent more than the annual budgets of a handful of states to do so. According to the outlet's summary, much of that money is aimed at voters' wallets. The full report, by reporter Lisa Desjardins, is available at PBS NewsHour's report on campaign attack ads.

PBS NewsHour also said the attacks in these campaigns are becoming more personal and more artificial. The summary describes this trend in the words "more personal and more artificial," but it does not give examples, name the campaigns involved, or explain how the artificial elements were produced.

The summary does not identify the states whose budgets were used for comparison, and it does not provide the dollar amounts spent. It does not say when the spending began or whether the trend applies across all races or only some. Desjardins is credited with explaining the story, according to PBS NewsHour.

This account is based solely on the title and summary PBS NewsHour published. Additional details would require the full report, which the summary indicates contains the explanation of the spending and the advertisements.

The Continental Gazette is reporting these points as stated in the summary and makes no independent assessment of the spending figures or of the description of the advertisements.

Sources: PBS NewsHour: Campaigns spend big to sway voters with increasingly personal attack ads.