In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a U.S. Senate race going on in Maryland this year between former Gov. Larry Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

There have been signs: billboards along highways in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore, ads every time you turn on the TV or the radio, emails and text messages jamming up your inbox — all telling you the nation is counting on Maryland to save it from doom by electing, depending on who’s paying for the ad, either Alsobrooks or Hogan to the Senate.

This inundation of campaign advertising that’s made it next to impossible to avoid hearing about this election is thanks to the record amount of cash that’s being pumped into the race, much of it from out-of-state donors. According to an analysis by The Baltimore Sun last week, the $36.2 million and $31.3 million raised and spent by Alsobrooks and Hogan, respectively, exceeds the cumulative amount spent campaigning for the seat by outgoing Sen. Ben Cardin and his Republican opponents in every election since 2006. That’s not even counting the millions spent on ads by outside groups to boost their favored candidate — like Maryland’s Future pulling for Hogan and Emily’s List for Alsobrooks.

It’s no surprise this race — a competitive one with implications for which party will control the U.S. Senate — has attracted so much cash. But despite how successful this spending has been in bringing the race to Maryland voters’ attention, it’s questionable how effective it’s been in actually making them informed about the candidates and their positions on the issues important to the state.

For all the ads the candidates and their allies have cut, they’ve mostly hammered home the same few points: Hogan’s ads argue he’ll be an independent voice in the Senate and that Alsobrooks’ tax errors represent a scandal; Alsobrooks’ ads argue a vote for Hogan is a vote for Donald Trump and the GOP and against reproductive rights.

These issues are certainly important and of interest to voters. But we worry other issues up for debate in this race that voters say are important to them, like the economy, health care and taxation — not to mention challenges to the state such as the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge — are being shortchanged as big campaign spenders seek to maximize voters’ exposure to the most damaging lines of attack on each candidate.

This problem has a lot to do with our nation’s unrestrictive campaign finance laws that open up races in Maryland to nearly limitless money from across the country. Letting national money into a race will tend to make it about national issues at the expense of other concerns. Whether these policies are essential to preserve donors’ First Amendment rights is up for debate; as for whether they’ve made voters more or less informed in this election, we believe that debate is settled.