The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
TV ads flood the airwaves
Advertising revs up heading into Tuesday primaries
Looking forward to focusing this weekend on political propaganda?
Well, on WFSB Channel 3 Sunday afternoon, you will have to watch a little PGA Championship golf jammed in there between wall-to-wall ads for governor candidates.
In their last gasp before the Tuesday primary, the seven hopefuls — two Democrats and five Republicans — are pulling out all the stops, giving TV stations windfalls of hundreds of thousands of dollars, before stopping abruptly Monday night.
The ad buying will rev up again after the smoke clears and Connecticut Democrats and
Republicans finally choose their candidates for governor and the top-of-the-ticket for the November elections.
Hundreds and hundreds of 30-second spots will be aired into early next week, and Channel 3 will be among the winners. A 30-second spot during the PGA tournament cost David Stemerman, the Greenwich Republican looking for the sweet spot in the 35-year-old-plus demographic, $1,000.
Not to short himself, Stemerman, the former Greenwich hedge-fund founder who closed the operation to seek his first elective office, is also on TV in the New York City market.
Later Sunday night, during “60 Minutes,” Republican Bob Stefanowski, a former Madison businessman who, like Stemerman, skipped the party convention to self-fund his first political campaign, paid $3,600 for 30-seconds of voter eyeball time. His ad on the daytime standby “The Price is Right” is $1,200 for each of five days.
That makes the $175 Republican Tim Herbst, the former Trumbull first selectman, paid for 30 seconds on “Jimmy Kimmel” Friday night on WTNH News 8, the state’s ABC-network affiliate, a downright bargain. That’s 10 times less than the $1,800 Herbst paid for a prime-time 30 second Thursday night on NBC 30’s “Law and Order.” Thirty seconds on the late Channel 8 news Friday is costing Herbst $550.
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, the endorsed Republican candidate for governor, has paid $45,000 for 104 ads on Channel 8 during the culmination of the campaign.
Ned Lamont of Greenwich, the endorsed Democrat, purchased 109 spots on Channel 8, totaling about $46,000.
For Fox 61 viewers, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim will portray himself as a pugilist for the people about 54 times during the last week of the campaign, ranging in price from $40 for a 5:30 a.m. spot, to $600 for prime time..
Steve Obsitnik, the Westport tech entrepreneur who was last to go up on TV after delays in achieving the $1.35 million in public financing, seems to be more frugal with his TV investments. Obsitnik booked 52 ads with Fox 61 in recent days, for a cost of about $5,000. According to public filings at the state’s major TV outlets, Obsitnik stopped advertising on NBC-30 before the last week in July.
Come Tuesday, when the polls open from 6 until 8 p.m. and the suspense drifts into late evening, the cash spigot will turn off, briefly.
Pouring in the cash
According to finance filings with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, the seven candidates are going all out in the last days.
Lamont’s campaign-finance strategy appears to be pour tons of money into the race ahead of the primary, even if it depletes his campaign wallet down to a measly $12,786 cash on hand, financial filings dated Aug. 5 show. Of course, Lamont, a self-funding millionaire who is not seeking public financing, will infuse his campaign with more cash, when needed.
From July 1 to Aug. 5, Lamont outspent his primary challenger Ganim nearly 7 to 1. While Lamont dropped $1,642,455 in this period, including $1 million on TV, Ganim spent only $246,352.
Like Lamont, Republicans Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman are pouring their personal wealth into their campaigns.
Stemerman had $7,609,112 on hand as of July 31, according to latest filings. In the last week of July, he spent $864,252 on his campaign — almost as much as Ganim has raised total. His big expenses included about a half million on TV ads and more than $100,000 on direct mailers to voters. In total, Stemerman has spent nearly $5.5 million on his race for governor.
Stefanowski, meanwhile, had $545,582 on hand at the close of July. He spent $323,080 in one week on TV, print advertising, lawn signs, direct mail and other costs. He also loaned himself $300,000. As of July, he had spent $2.4 million on his campaign.
Boughton, Herbst and Obsitnik, the three candidates who qualified for grants, closed July in similar financial positions. The three each had raised a total of about $1.5 million — including their grants — as of July 31. And they each closed the month with approximately a half million on hand — Obsitnik and Herbst a little more, Boughton a little less.
Obsitnik spent the most at the end of July, dropping $730,411 on TV spots, ad production and lawn signs. Boughton also purchased a TV spot in the last week, while Herbst put his funds in radio commercials, mailers and digital ads.