More than an attack ad: Outside group mails 12-page catalog bashing McCrory in US Senate race

"Just the length of this thing is unprecedented. Obviously, it's a hit job from the first page to the last page," said Chris Cooper, Madison Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University. "It's not a small production, but it's the kind of thing the Club for Growth does."

Club for Growth started in the late 1990s as a low-tax, libertarian group of ultra-wealthy individuals, but it has since morphed into an organization "supporting insurgent Republican candidates," Cooper said. It now appears to be "informally aligned" with Trump, he added.

"They tended to endorse the more insurgent candidate, the more outside candidate, the exact kinds of candidates to play right into President Trump's message," he said. "This is not a ragtag group has decided to endorse some candidates. They've got as much money as anybody in American politics."

And the group plans to sink plenty of that money into the GOP primary for Senate.

Spokesman Joe Kildea said Club for Growth has already spent $4.3 million in the race and will eventually spend more than $10 million.

The $4.3 million is more than the top three candidates in the race have available in their campaigns combined: Budd had $2 million on hand as of Sept. 30, while McCrory had $1.6 million and former Congressman Mark Walker had $613,000.

The 12-page mailer cost about $15,000, Kildea said, and was mailed to "conservative and political thought leaders in North Carolina."

"Any Republican primary voter who gets these desperately deceptive mailers should remember that they’re bought and paid for by the DC swamp – just like Ted Budd," Shaw said in an email to WRAL News.

Carter Wrenn, a longtime Republican strategist, called the ad a waste of money.

"It's 12 times more likely to end up in the trash," Wrenn said. "People are thinking about the holidays this time of year. If you send them 12 pages of voter information, they're not going to read it."

But Cooper said the effort is generating buzz that could carry forward as the primary approaches.

"In a primary, your money's going to do a lot more work," he said. "They are investing wisely to try to get the product they want on the stage."