New Hampshire Results Will Lead to More Spending

NEW HAMPSHIRE RESULTS WILL LEAD TO MORE SPENDING
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Political and advertising executives said that in the Democratic race, Sen. Hillary Clinton's unexpected New Hampshire win forces the candidates to immediately move their focus beyond the next two states, Nevada and South Carolina, to Feb. 5, aka Super Duper Tuesday. On that day, more than 20 states -- among them California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York -- have primaries. Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, where organization was the main weapon, on Feb. 5 heavy media advertising, backed by a heavy publicity push, will be deployed. "On the Republican side, it would be astonishing if [the race] doesn't go beyond Feb. 5," said Norman J. Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. But he added that a win by Mr. McCain over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Michigan and problems for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Florida could change the script leading to Super Duper Tuesday. Mr. Ornstein said the most likely Republican scenario is that alternating GOP primary winners leaves no single candidate with a knockout -- or with sufficient money to advertise everywhere. "Feb. 5 is potentially going to be a problem for most of the Republican candidates," he said. "Unless Romney wants to take all his [personal wealth], competing in all 20 states is going to be prohibitively expensive. They don't have $40 million to $50 million in the bank, so what you are going to see is a very different process and a different kind of ad strategy where they are going to do national cable and look for other places to target." Mr. Ornstein said the GOP race could end up being decided at the Republican National Convention.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=122977

* Amy Goodman: The Broadcasters’ Big Payday
[Commentary] The majority of the money that candidates are forced to raise is for TV ads. They are running to be the nation’s top public servant. The networks should provide the airtime as a free public service. The airwaves belong to the public; they are a national treasure. They should be used to enrich our electoral process. Instead, they are exploited by highly profitable TV networks, forcing the candidates to rely on monied interests. This vicious cycle must be broken.
http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2008/01/amy-goodman-broadcasters-big-payday.html