NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Elections and political issue spots hit a record $515 million this year, according to a news report Friday.

The $515 million spent on television ads was far greater than the $300 million spent in 2003, the last "off-year" election season, according to the New York Post, which cited TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, a campaign spending analysis group.

A total of $72 million was spent on mayoral races in the U.S., while the mayoral candidates in New York City alone spent more than $44 million, the newspaper said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who won re-election, spent $30 million of his own money on his bid, according to the Post. His Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, spent $6 million. Other candidates running in the primaries accounted for the remainder of the $44 million, the newspaper said.

In New Jersey, Governor-elect Jon Corzine, the former head of Goldman Sachs, spent $25 million on television ads, while Republican Doug Forrester spent $15 million. The combined expenditure was more than double the amount spent on the gubernatorial race in 2001, according to the report.

Increasingly, candidates are turning to television to broadcast their message, and they are starting their ad campaigns earlier in the election cycle, Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG told the newspaper.

"They're basically starting a longer dialogue with voters so that they're not trying to fight in cluttered airwaves a month before the election," Tracey told the newspaper.

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