A Low-Down, Dirty, Rotten and Expensive 2012 Presidential Election

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, October 25, 2012 by Common Dreams

A Low-Down, Dirty, Rotten and Expensive 2012 Presidential Election
Unleashed ad spending 'pulverizes' campaign records; More ads and more negativity than ever

- Common Dreams staff


With a flood of outside money unleashed by the loosening of campaign finance restrictions since 2008, a new study shows that spending on campaign advertisements has risen to unprecedented levels and that the nature of the ads will make this year the most expensive and negatively-charged election in the history of the United States.

“When all is said and done, 2012 will go down as a record pulverizing year for political advertising,” said Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. “We’ve already surpassed the total number of presidential ads aired during the entire 2008 campaign—and we still have two weeks to go before Election Day. What is especially striking is that the ads are concentrated on fewer markets than 2008, meaning that a smaller number of Americans have witnessed the onslaught of messages in the race for the White House.”

The examination by the group also broke down ad spending by party, with Republican leaning groups showing the most significant jumps. "Examining just the first three weeks of October, Democratic-leaning groups are estimated to have spent 438 percent more on advertising than they did four years ago," the report said. That huge increase, however, was pummeled by Republican-leaning groups who increased their spending by a whopping 954 percent. "In just the past three weeks, pro-Romney groups have spent over $47 million on television advertising. This translates into a $10 million advantage in ad spending by all Republican sponsors over all Democratic sponsors during the past three weeks."

Despite the overall spending advantage, however, the report found that the Obama campaign was actually airing more ads than Romney. Two possible reasons for this were given. The first, was that the Romney campaign has been saving money for a final "media push" in the last two weeks of the campaign. The other, more reflected in the reality of existing campaign finance laws, is that because Obama's spending is coming through its own campaign—which receives more favorable ad rates than those given to outside Super PACs or 501C-4 organizations that make up the bulk of the pro-Romney spending—Obama can spend less for more ads. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/25