Savor it: The first weekend in months without a single political commercial.
Call it the calm after the storm, and it was a hurricane indeed. In the final month before the Nov. 4 election, the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain combined to spend more than $3 million on advertising at the four regional network stations — WGAL, WHTM, WHP and FOX 43 — running more than 6,000 ads between Sept. 29 and Nov. 4.
Station officials say they've never seen an October like it.
"October was definitely gangbusters," said Paul Roda, national sales manager at WHTM ABC27 in Harrisburg. "Spending was up considerably from October 2004.
"But the dynamics of this election were different from the get-go," he said.
There were two reasons for that: First, the Obama campaign had an unprecedented amount of money to spend, and spent nearly as much money in the Harrisburg market — which includes Lancaster County — as McCain.
McCain's totals were bolstered by the Republican National Committee, which actually ran more McCain ads on local networks than the McCain campaign itself.
The second factor in the late ad blitz, say political experts and station execs, was the McCain campaign's decision to focus heavily on Pennsylvania late in the race. That resulted in significantly more advertising, and spending, than otherwise might have occurred here.
Pennsylvania is "likely to be the most-advertised state," said G. Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs. But, he said, the economy was such an overriding issue that "many of the commercials [were] not seen as relevant," and by late October they were "reaching a point of diminishing returns."
TV gold mineNot, however, for the stations themselves.
For the year, Lancaster-based WGAL took in $3.36 million in political ads related to the presidential race, according to figures provided by the station. The Obama for President campaign accounted for $1.47 million of that total. Three different entities bought commercials for McCain: the McCain for President campaign (which spent $725,000); the McCain/Palin/Republican National Committee joint venture ($442,000); and the RNC itself ($480,000).
Obama's total includes both primary and general election spending.
Stations are required by law to make information on political advertising available to the public.
At WHTM ABC27, the Obama campaign spent $992,640 for the year, while the three groups running McCain ads spent a combined $1.2 million.
At WHP TV-21 in Harrisburg, Obama spent $746,640 on ads, with the combined McCain ads totaling about $900,000.
At FOX 43, Obama spent $550,950, while the McCain camp dropped $391,930.
Nationwide, Obama spent some $250 million on television advertising, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a leading political ad-monitoring organization. Evan Tracey, president of the group, told McClatchy Newspapers that McCain spent about $135 million on TV ads, with the RNC kicking in about $40 million for pro-McCain or anti-Obama ads.
Unions, political action committees and other special interests also pumped money into local ads. Through Nov. 4, according to a CQ MoneyLine analysis, some $98 million was spent nationally. Locally, groups like "Let Freedom Ring," a grassroots conservative organization, spent $17,340 on 14 one-minute spots on WGAL during the week of Oct. 13-19. The Service Employees International Union, which backed Obama, spent $26,175 on 40 30-second ads during the week of Oct. 6-12.
Obama's spending was fueled, in part, by his decision not to accept public financing of his campaign. He'd initially said he would participate in the system if his Republican challenger agreed to do the same.
McCain, by contrast, did accept public financing — and simply didn't have as much money to spend.
"The RNC really stepped up to support" the McCain campaign, said Nancy Tulli, WGAL general sales manager.
Obama's advantage allowed him wide latitude in advertising, and that was borne out here. On all local stations, most McCain ads were 30 seconds long. While Obama's efforts included 30-second spots, his campaign also ran one- and even two-minute ads.
Between Oct. 26 and Nov. 3, Obama ran eight two-minute spots on WGAL, at a cost of $33,100.
"That's different for us," said Tulli. "On a local level, when you place a two-minute commercial like that, that's unprecedented."
With the McCain campaign's decision to focus on Pennsylvania, the local television market became one of the most important in the nation.
An analysis from the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project noted that during the week of Oct. 21-28 — which saw a record $38 million spent nationwide — the Harrisburg market ranked eighth in the country in the number of McCain ads aired. In terms of the number of overall ads, the Harrisburg market ranked 13th in the nation.
The question is: Did it affect local balloting?
By that point in the contest, Madonna doubts it.
McCain's "fundamental problem" in attempting to come back from polling deficits (Obama won the state 54.7 percent to 44.3 percent) was that voters seemed to identify him with President Bush — and McCain did not use his commercials "to dent that impression," said Madonna.
The ads, he said did not "change the fundamental situation" in the weeks before the election. With so few undecided voters left in Pennsylvania by October, "it's not easy to move voters with commercials."
Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817. 