WASHINGTON–Ken Goldstein at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is the source for looking at political ad spending. In a new study released on Monday LINK Goldstein totals all spending for all contenders at $200 million for the primary season, which closes Tuesday. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) alone accounts for $75 million of that compared to $46 million for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
The study concludes, “The advantage in advertising alone, of course, does not explain Obamas victories in these contests. The demographics of a state and other fundamental election and campaign factors surely have a great impact on election outcomes, and Senator Obama also had significant advantages in advertising spending in other states that he lost (Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania for example).
“Still, in the nine states that Obama won in the two week period following the February 5 Super Tuesday primaries, Obama, not only had an advantage in the number of ads that he aired, but in most of these nine contests, he was also first on the air and had the paid media airways all to himself for a significant part of the short campaigns,” the study said.
