Feel awash in political ads? Over the last three weeks, viewers have been subjected to 3,588 television commercials related to the race for Connecticut’s open U.S. Senate seat, according to a report released today by the Wesleyan Media Project.
But that only ranks the state as 13th by advertising volume, though not by dollars. The poor souls of Montana were subjected to 19,047 ads over the same period, from Sept. 9 to 30.
With TV advertising more expensive here, the Connecticut race ranked sixth in dollars spent: $3.7 million vs. $6 million in Ohio, the state with the most spending. In neighboring Massachusetts, the spending was $5.92 million, nearly evenly split between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren.
Not surprisingly, the spending in the Connecticut race tilts heavily in favor of the wealthy Republican Linda McMahon, who is self-funding her campaign. Spending by GOP candidate over the three-week period was $2.8 million vs. the $921,810 spent by or on behalf of Democrat Chris Murphy.
The disparity in the number of ads is smaller: 2,024 vs. 1,564.
The likely reason is that McMahon is buying time on New York television stations, a very expensive way to reach voters in southern Connecticut. Murphy is not on TV in New York. So McMahon is getting fewer spots for her money.
As The Mirror recently reported, McMahon has committed nearly $5 million to ads on New York television over the last two months of the campaign.
While a 30-second commercial in the Hartford-New Haven market can cost a few hundred dollars, McMahon has spent $65,000 for a single spot during the Jets game in New York.