SPENDING ON TV ADS IN GOVERNOR'S RACE TOPS $7 MILLION
Associated Press - SCOTT BAUER [10/12/2006]

"MADISON, Wis. - With less than a month until Election Day, spending on television campaign advertising in Wisconsin's hotly contested governor's race has topped $7 million, a figure described as "eye-popping" by the head of a government watchdog group.

Gov. Jim Doyle, U.S. Rep. Mark Green and their supporters have saturated the airwaves in recent weeks with ads in advance of the Nov. 7 election.

Spending on TV ads more than quadrupled from Aug. 21 through Saturday, according to an analysis by TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, an Arlington, Va., group that monitors such activity.

From Jan. 1 through Aug. 21, only $1.7 million had been spent on ads for the governor's race, but $5.5 million has been spent since then, the analysis requested by The Associated Press showed.

Mike McCabe, director of the nonpartisan watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said those figures were about what he expected "but it's still eye-popping."

He expects the total to increase even faster in the final 26 days before the election, a period when candidates traditionally ratchet up TV advertising to rope in undecided voters.

Five new TV ads have hit the air since Saturday alone. Green and Doyle each launched one, with a third from the Doyle-supporting Greater Wisconsin Committee, and two from groups backing Green - All Children Matter and the NRA.

McCabe's group estimates that total spending on the 2002 campaign for governor was about $22.7 million but expects this year's contest to cost closer to $30 million - making it the most expensive in state history.

So far Doyle, the Democratic incumbent, has spent nearly $1 million more than the Republican Green.

Green spokesman Mike Prentiss said he was happy with how much money the campaign has been able to devote to ads.

"We expected all along that the governor and his allies were going to outspend us, perhaps by a significant amount," Prentiss said. "I don't think we need to spend as much as he does to win this race."

Doyle's spokesman Anson Kaye said television ads provide an important way to get the governor's message out and spending on them will continue.

"We've said all the way along that we're going to have a very vigorous communications operation," Kaye said.

Doyle has spent about $2.7 million on TV advertising this year, while Green has spent $1.8 million.

Third party groups added another $2.7 million to the mix, bringing the total spent to $7.2 million. They split their money nearly evenly between the two candidates.

TNS looked only at air time purchased in the state's three largest markets - Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee - and its figures don't include cable television, other broadcast markets or radio ads.

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