A Tale of Two Primaries

A TALE OF TWO PRIMARIES
[Commentary] With over $131 million spent on TV thus far by candidates and groups, it's now a question of how much gas is left in the tank. On the Democratic side, it's clear that Senators Clinton (NY) and Obama (IL) have the wind at their backs. Both campaigns are nearing the $20 million mark each in ad spending with the majority focused on the early voting states. However, with no knockout blows, they are now both extending there buys into the Feb. 5 states. The Obama campaign struck first with targeted buys in Arizona, California and Tennessee. And now it appears the Clinton campaign is striking out into at least 10 Feb. 5 states. It would appear that a protracted ad war is in the making. On the Republican side you have almost the exact opposite. In fact, it appears to be the political equivalent of the game Whack-A-Mole. No campaign seems to have any sustainable momentum. Every week, someone new is up and someone else is down in the polls. Governor Romney leads all ad spenders with close to $30 million in TV ads in the early states. Yet the only campaign to venture into Feb. 5 states with media buys is Rudy Giuliani, who has been buying a few Fox Network and Fox Cable News ads that reach the entire country. From here the campaigns are faced with a day-to-day, week-to-week media plan. For the GOP, positive earned media may be all they have to carry the momentum and message into Feb. 5. In other words, planning will be a difficult task. The keys to victory come down to the 3 M's: Motivation of supporters; Momentum from wins; and Money for ads.
http://adage.com/campaigntrail/article?article_id=123197