Lobbying Groups Ramp Up Spending on Issue Ads

Since President Obama's inauguration, $270 million has been spent on television advertisements designed to influence public-policy decisions, according to Campaign Media Analysis Group, a nonpartisan organization that tracks television spending. That is up significantly from the same period at the beginning of the last session of Congress in 2007. It took until September 2007 for so-called issue-advocacy spending to reach $270 million in the previous cycle, according to the organization. The rise in such advertising underscores Washington's new prominence in the economy. "What has surprised me so much this year is that nobody has sat back and waited to see what Congress is going to do," said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of Campaign Media Analysis Group. Energy issues have been the focus of more than $115 million in advertising. Health-care organizations have spent millions of dollars on advertisements.