The main reason Romney is ahead in Florida: 12,768 TV ads, compared to 210 for Gingrich

[highplainsdem]

I knew the Romney campaign and super PAC were outspending Gingrich, by 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 depending on which news story you heard.

What I didn't realize, till I heard Rachel mention this last night, was how much wider the disparity in TV ads was -- roughly 60 to 1.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-27/gop-primaries-ad-spending-super-pacs/52895296/1

The spending is leaving its mark on Florida, the site of today's crucial GOP primary. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his allies, especially the pro-Romney Restore Our Future, aired 12,768 television commercials in the state through Wednesday compared with 210 by former House speaker Newt Gingrich and his supporters, a study released Monday by the Wesleyan Media Project shows.

"It's one-sided domination," said Erika Franklin Fowler, the project's co-director and a Wesleyan University political scientist. "If you have a television on in Orlando or Fort Myers or West Palm Beach, you are seeing Romney ads and very few pro-Gingrich ads."

The cascade of television attack ads is a "major factor" in Romney's resurgence in Florida polls, following his stunning South Carolina loss to Gingrich less than two weeks ago, said Matthew Corrigan, a political scientist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

"You can look at one ad and ignore it," Corrigan said, "but when it keeps getting pounded into your head, it has an effect."

Given that disparity, it's remarkable that Romney isn't leading by any more than he is in the polls.

A number of polls have shown older Floridians as the age group where he gets most of his support. I believe they'd tend to have seen more of those ads, especially with the Romney advertising often targeted at shows appealing to older audiences:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/us/politics/republican-campaigns-get-picky-about-tv-advertising.html

They were also more likely to vote early, and most of Romney's lead, according to the polls, comes from people who voted early.

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Blitzkrieg

The Florida primary is just a small taste of what we will see in the general election. Once Rawmoney is crowned the ads will begin soon enough. It won't be long before we a picture Obama with a sunken cruise ship in the background. The RNC chair has already put that idea in place. What a pig.

[Loudly]

2. The Amendment:

It shall not be an infringement of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution for Congress to limit by law the raising and expenditure of money in public elections.

[think]

3. Mitt Romney is buying Florida not winning it

[HockeyMom]

4. Gingrich really didn't start stepping up his ads until yesterday

Too little, too late.

[mucifer]

5. It's how Rahm became mayor of Chicago with huge numbers.

[Frances]

6. Chicago does not matter to me nearly as much as the U.S.

[VWolf]

7. The Obama adminstration had best take heed

Although I'm sure they're already on it.