Phoenix had most political TV ads
Report: Time frame had 41,000 spots broadcasted
Arizona has gotten more competitive politically, and that carries with it a mostly unwanted side effect: more political advertising.
The Phoenix market topped the nation in the number of political ads on broadcast TV between Sept. 3 and Oct. 16, with 41,000 spots, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, a firm that tracks multimedia advertising.
Not surprisingly, the state’s U.S. Senate race between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema tops the list for ads. But that contest, one of the nation’s closest, doesn’t even account for half the ads bombarding viewers.
The governor’s race, several ballot propositions and a handful of competitive congressional races, plus the Phoenix mayor’s race all help drive up the market’s total.
The political deluge isn’t much better in Tucson. That is the nation’s No. 3 market for political ads, with 30,000 of its own.
Terri Briggs, a Phoenix Republican, said the political TV ads that have dominated the channels she watches are overwhelming.
“I’m sick of it,” she said. “I don’t even like to watch TV. I’m muting it constantly because I can’t stand to hear the political advertisements.”
By Kantar’s count, the political action here is more intense than what’s going on in traditional battlegrounds such as Florida and Ohio. It’s also busier than the tough race this year in Texas and the two Senate races in Minnesota.
Sitting between Phoenix and Tucson is Las Vegas, which has its own pricey Senate race.
Other markets have seen more money spent on political ads, according to Kantar, but no other market has seen the volume in Phoenix so far.
McSally-Sinema race dominates
In Arizona, both major markets are seeing an onslaught of Senate-related ads. Many of the ads alternately rip McSally as the enemy of health care and Sinema as advocating treason.
Sandee Vanwinkle, a member of the
Green Party from Gold Canyon, said she actively works to tune out the ugliness on screen and in her mailbox these days. It isn’t easy.
The Senate race has generated 18,000 ads in Phoenix and another 12,000 in Tucson.
McSally’s and Sinema’s campaigns account for less than a third of the ads involving them in Phoenix.
The Democratic and Republican Senate committees account for about a quarter of the Senate ads, with thousands more that are joint efforts with the candidates.
Outside groups account for the biggest piece of the Senate ad war, but those behind the blitz are not truly outsiders.
Groups with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have run thousands of ads in Phoenix, mostly trashing the other side.
The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund has made the biggest investment in Arizona’s Senate race of any outside group by contributing directly to Defend Arizona, a relatively new super PAC.
The story is similar in Tucson, with one notable difference.
The candidates have run nearly as many ads in Tucson as in Phoenix, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee ran only joint ads with McSally in Tucson.
By contrast, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran their own ads and joint ads with Sinema.
The extra effort by the Democrats reflects the Tucson area’s reputation as more friendly for Democrats, but it’s also the area McSally represents in Congress. Polling has long shown her lagging in her own district.
House races attract attention
Arizona has several competitive House races, which has also contributed to the high volume in Phoenix and Tucson.
The busiest race on TV is McSally’s 2nd Congressional District in Tucson, with more than 6,000 ads there.
That district is among the most evenly divided in the nation between registered Democrats and registered Republicans, and each party has claimed a narrow victory there in recent years.
With McSally out of the race, Democrats have invested heavily in the effort to send Ann Kirkpatrick, a three-term veteran of Capitol Hill, back to Congress from a different district.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has helped Republican Lea Marquez Peterson challenge Kirkpatrick, but opted to pull out of the race beginning last week.
The busiest House race in the Phoenix market is for the 1st Congressional District, the northeastern Arizona seat that barely includes Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county.
Nearly all of the 2,400 ads in that race have come from U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Republican Wendy Rogers has largely waged her campaign on more-conservative cable channels.
The 9th Congressional District race between former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Steve Ferrara, the former chief medical officer for the Navy, has produced another 1,400 ads.
State races busy, too
Gov. Doug Ducey seems to be coasting to re-election, but he hasn’t left anything to chance on TV.
Ducey and his allies account for more than 10,000 of the 11,000 ads between both markets in that race.
The secretary of state and attorney general races have produced nearly another 5,000 ads in Phoenix and Tucson.
Proposition 127, the statewide measure that would require electric companies to get half their power from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2030, has been the most fiercely fought ballot measure in Arizona’s history. It has produced more than 11,000 TV ads between both markets.
The ballot question pits the parent company of Arizona Public Service Co. against a group funded by California billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
Further down the ballot, but not off the TV screen, the Phoenix mayor’s race has also squeezed in another 600 ads touting rivals Kate Gallego or Daniel Valenzuela.
Santiago Feria, a Republican retiree from Mesa, tries to shrug off the nonstop political messaging.
“It’s just part of the season,” he said. “I really don’t like the attack ads, but that’s part of the game.”