Romney, Perry Have Bought Most Ads
The advertising wars are in full swing four weeks before the Iowa caucuses, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is far outspending the rest of the field, according to data provided by a Republican keeping a close eye on key media markets.
Romney has purchased another $265,000 in television time in Iowa and New Hampshire over the next week, where his campaign is running its Right Answer ad. The vast majority of that is broadcast television in Cedar Rapids (650 gross ratings points), Des Moines (800 points), Sioux City (450 points) and on WMUR in Manchester (550 points). He also spent $13,000 on Fox News specifically in Iowa.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's team has put $89,000 behind two advertisements in Des Moines (370 points), Cedar Rapids (300 points) and Sioux City (315 points). That sounds like a small buy, but the buy only covers Saturday through Tuesday. In other words, these buys are the equivalent of about an 800-point weekly buy. Perry is dividing the buy between an ad on energy jobs and one in which he discusses his faith.
Perry will get more help from Make Us Great Again, a super PAC that's run by one of his closest associates. The PAC began running their own ads on broadcast television in four Iowa markets and five South Carolina markets; all told, they will spend $297,000 on those advertisements. The PAC has bought $91,000 in cable air time in Iowa and South Carolina, and another $2,000 in South Carolina radio spots.
(Interesting, by the way, that Perry's super PAC is the only group advertising in the first-in-the-south primary state)
Rep. Ron Paul is the only other presidential campaign with any significant ad buys running this week. Paul's team starts a two-week ad campaign tomorrow; he's reserved $255,000 for ads in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Manchester and $121,000 on four cable networks (ESPN, the Golf Channel, the History Channel and NESN) in both states. He's also got $53,000 in radio ads, all behind a new spot that touts his plans to cut a trillion dollars from the federal budget in his first year.
And here's something interesting: President Obama isn't getting a free ride on the Democratic side. Anti-abortion rights activist Randall Terry, who is on a few ballots as a Democrat this year, has spent $3,500 on a few spots in six different Iowa media markets. Some Iowans paying careful attention will see those ads running between Tuesday and Thursday.
All told, here's a look at who's advertising where this week, in gross ratings points between December 5 and 11:
DSM C/R S/C MHT Romney 885 600 450 615 Perry 410 330 500 0 Pro-Perry PAC 320 300 270 0 Paul 300 250 250 300 Pro-Cain PAC 100 0 0 0
Abbreviations: DSM is Des Moines, C/R is Cedar Rapids, S/C is Sioux City, and MHT is Manchester.
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