Getting an ad on the air in a competitive Senate race next year may not break the bank, but that won’t change the unruly amount of money that will be spent.
A Senate playing field (view ratings map) constructed almost entirely of small media markets has several implications for the candidates, campaign committees and outside groups in the most targeted states next year. Above all, it likely guarantees an extended campaign season.
“It means the poor, unfortunate people who live in those states will be subjected to much more ugliness,” as Curt Anderson, a Republican media consultant, put it.
Voters in Kentucky and Arkansas — home to both parties’ most vulnerable incumbent — have already become acquainted with their candidates for Senate, thanks to media campaigns launched a year and a half before the 2014 midterm elections. In Louisiana, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has already launched its first TV ad of the cycle, and it’s only a matter of time before an all-out ad war kicks off in dirt-cheap Alaska.
Of the 10 most competitive Senate races in 2014, only media markets covering parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky are among the 50 largest in the country, as ranked by Nielsen. States like New Hampshire, Michigan and Colorado would fit in that category, but at this point they are not among the most likely to flip control.
via The Cheap Seats: Senate Majority Determined in Inexpensive States | At the Races.
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