Midterm Elections Ad Spending May Break Records

[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
The $515 million spent on this year’s election -- a record for an off-year election -- will pale compared to the predicted outlay for 2006, a midterm election that could reach the lofty $1.7 billion spent during the presidential election year of 2004. “It’s the only sector of the advertising economy that is growing,” said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence Campaign Media Analysis Group. He said political spending next year is likely to top $1.4 billion and could easily beat the $1.7 billion registered in 2004 that included the hard-fought race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. Expected to fuel the increase is the number of big-state governor races, including Minnesota, Texas, New York, California and Illinois, some U.S. Senate races in Florida and New York, and the possibility that President Bush’s image problem could increase the number of competitive congressional districts.
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