Archives » Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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Holly Bailey
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Oct 17, 2007 05:54 PM
In Iowa today, Mitt Romney gave his seal of approval to the state’s
decision to move its GOP presidential primary to Jan. 3. “I think it’s
a good thing that Iowa is first,” Romney told reporters, according to the Politico’s Jonathan Martin.
“Iowans have shown over the years that they’re willing to get to know
the candidates on a personal basis and make a judgment on their heart
and character, not just their ads.” Not that there’s anything wrong
with ads in Romney’s book. His comments came on the heels of yet more
details on just how extensive the former governor’s advertising has
been during the first nine months of the campaign. According to the
Nielsen Company, Romney has placed 10,893 TV and radio ads so far-more
ads than any other two presidential hopefuls combined. Bill Richardson
placed second, with 5,975 ads, and Barack Obama was third, placing
4,293 ads. According to Nielsen, Romney ran 10,199 ads on local TV, the
bulk of them in Iowa, where Romney hit the airwaves 5,058 times. He ran
1,658 ads in New Hampshire, 977 ads in Vermont (where the TV market
reaches residents in northern New Hampshire), 893 ads in South Carolina
and 1,413 ads in Florida. None of his GOP opponents even came close to
his ad buys. Rudy Giuliani, who has yet to air a TV ad, ran 642 radio
spots. Ron Paul ran 232 TV ads, all in Iowa, and John McCain aired 166
TV ads in New Hampshire. At the same time, McCain leads the
presidential pack in cheaper online advertising. According to Nielsen,
McCain had 4.3 million sponsored links in August. Dennis Kucinich was
second with 1.8 million sponsored links and Romney was third, with 1.7
million. But we have a feeling that it’s only a matter of time before
the other candidates close the gap. Just Google “Fred Thompson.” Right
now, when you search for info on the former Tennessee senator, a banner
ad comes up touting Mike Huckabee’s Web site. “Huckabee Finn?” it says,
playing off former White House aide Dan Bartlett’s recent comments
about the former Arkansas governor’s last name. “Check out the real
story.”
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