2012 campaign ad spend poised best 2008 record

President Obama, Mitt Romney, and their allies are spending money at a faster pace than the final weeks of the 2008 presidential election. The National Journal reports all sides dropped more than $30 million in just the past week. By the end of September 2008, Obama, John McCain, and their respective backers spent a combined $28 million per week.

In total, the campaigns have spent more than $170 million on television time so far during the general election. At the current clip, the two campaigns and their associated allies are poised to spend more than $700 million on television advertising alone. Campaigns typically increase their advertising spending as Election Day approaches, meaning the final amount will likely be far higher than that. Either way, it will easily eclipse the $515 million total both sides spent in the 2008 presidential contest.

[Last] week alone, Obama’s campaign spent $15.8 million. Team Obama spread its cash out over nine battleground states. Between June 26 and July 2, the president’s campaign spent $3.2 million in both Florida and Ohio, and more than $2 million in Virginia. And there’s no sign of plans for much of a summer break: The Obama campaign has purchased $5.1 million in ads to be broadcast on NBC networks during the Olympic Games between July 27 and Aug. 12.

Romney’s campaign  has spent far less than Obama’s as he replenishes his stockpile after the Republican primaries. This week, the Romney team dropped just $3 million on advertising, with the biggest investment being a $920,000 ad buy in Ohio. Romney’s camp spent $547,000 in North Carolina and less than $500,000 each in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and Virginia.

But outside groups are doing their best to help Romney keep up. After going silent for a few weeks in order to rebuild their own coffers, the pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC spent $3.4 million on ads this week, and Americans for Prosperity — the Koch-backed group based in Alexandria — began a major $9 million advertising buy across 12 swing states (this week, the group is spending a total of $4 million, according to

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://rbr.com/2012-campaign-ad-spend-poised-best-2008-record/

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Posted by RobertButler on Jun 29 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry