The largest spenders are candidates in New York, Texas, California and Florida, states with sizable Hispanic populations.

The 2012 budget is 6-7 times larger than the $106 billion military budget of China, and is more than the next twenty largest military spenders combined.

The largest spender in the first nine months was Procter & Gamble, at $2.1 billion, up 6.7 percent from the period a year ago.

During the 1950s Canada was one of the largest military spenders in the alliance and one of the few not receiving direct aid from the United States.

That industry, the largest spender in advertising, faces reviews by public health officials as well as advertising regulators.

The largest spender in the first six months was Procter & Gamble, which spent $1.3 billion, up 4 percent from the period in 2003.

But appeals by the insurance industry - the largest spender by far in the advertising war - have all been couched in pro-consumer terms.

It is involved with marketing the industry as a whole (although the industry has some of the UK's notorious largest spenders on advertising) and regulation.

The World Bank, the largest spender on such projects, will be able to muster only $30 billion to $40 billion, he added.

If they were New York mobsmen, they might have marked him while he was in Manhattan, for there Thayner had been a large spender.