NEW YORK (AP) - An independent group backing Republican Mitt Romney is spending nearly $4 million on ads in nine battleground states.

An organization that tracks TV spending by political campaigns says the Romney-aligned Restore Our Future has bought television ad time in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and New Hampshire.

The pro-Romney group was by far the biggest advertiser during the Republican presidential primary, spending more than $53 million on ads attacking Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich after each one emerged at different points as Romney’s chief conservative rival.

News of the Restore Our Future buy first appeared in Politico. A spokesman for the group declined to comment.

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