Obama, Romney Ratchet Up Ads In Florida, Virginia
TAMPA (CBSMiami/AP) - The political pitches clustered around newscasts and news shows in Florida, Virginia and other hotly contested states could help determine the outcome of the White House contest.
In Tampa a commercial in the middle of "Dateline NBC" shows a woman fretting about the national debt under President Barack Obama and saying: "He spent like our country's credit card had no limit." In an ad seen during evening newscasts, the Obama campaign trashes Mitt Romney for "the worst economic record in the country" when he was governor of Massachusetts.
At this stage in the campaign, both Republicans and Democrats are focusing the bulk of their advertising on selling their campaign message to a select group of people — those who pay close attention to the news, seek to stay informed and influence those around them.
"They are trying to get opinion leaders, early donors and the press to focus on certain issues or events," says Joe Mercurio, a New York-based political media buyer.
This was the finding when an Associated Press reporter recently spent several hours watching television in Richmond and Tampa, two population hubs in states that have emerged as pivotal to the election prospects for Obama and Romney. Obama carried Virginia and Florida over Republican John McCain in 2008 but is fighting for a repeat this time.
Both states and both media markets are awash in TV ads in a crush noteworthy for its negativity, early start and involvement of outside groups that are likely to spend more on commercials than both the Obama and Romney campaigns.
To be sure, both sides dramatically will expand their advertising in the coming months. They'll try to target their messages to older people by running TV ads during daytime programming, and to young voters by focusing on late-night shows.
But for now, their target is those who tend to set the agenda in communities, as well as the most prized voters.
As Elizabeth Wilner, vice president of Kantar Media-Campaign Media Analysis Group, put it: "News programming is still a reliable place to find undecideds."
The Richmond-Petersburg media market is one of three in Virginia that consistently rank among the top 10 in the country for ad spending by both the campaigns and independent groups. The others are Norfolk/Newport News on the state's eastern edge and Lynchburg/Roanoke in south-central Virginia.
The Obama campaign spent $721,000 to advertise in Virginia during this recent week compared with $384,000 for the Romney campaign. But Crossroads GPS, a conservative-leaning independent group spent about $437,000 on ads attacking Obama in Virginia, putting the pro-Romney efforts on par with the president's team.
Obama also got an assist from Priorities USA Action, a group formed by two of his former aides. It spent about $90,000 on ads in Virginia that week.
Tampa is the second largest metropolitan region in Florida and anchors the western end of the I-4 corridor that bisects the central part of the state. The corridor is home to many swing voters and Tampa will host the Republican National Convention in late August.
In Florida during this recent week, the Obama campaign spent just under $1 million to run ads compared with $638,000 for Crossroads GPS. That gave the Romney campaign the luxury of staying off the air and saving money.
Indeed, a day of television viewing in Tampa found a nearly constant stream of negative ads. As in Virginia, both sides focused on running ads around morning and evening newscasts in Tampa.
The Obama campaign has run several commercials in Florida including ads showcasing his support for Medicare and federal assistance for veterans.
(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
