From the Tribune:

ELECTION '06 CAMPAIGN

Election dollars pouring into TV
Local ad spending in $40 million range

By Phil Rosenthal
Tribune media columnist
Published November 7, 2006

If money is the mother's milk of politics, there are some fat babies out there among local TV stations this campaign season.

"They're buying up every conceivable piece of time that you could see on television," Emily Barr, president and general manager of ABC-owned WLS-Ch. 7, said of candidates and political advocates this election season.

Thanks to several tight races with national implications, particularly the Tammy Duckworth-Peter Roskam battle in the 6th Congressional District and David McSweeney-Melissa Bean fight in the 8th, Chicago-area political TV advertising has reached record heights in the run-up to Tuesday's election.

Spending on campaign TV commercials on local outlets has been in the $40 million range, according to station sources. That's more than double the $18 million or so spent locally on political TV ads in 2004, even with the White House at stake, in part because neither party saw Illinois in play.

This time, however, it's a different story, said Democratic media consultant David Axelrod.

"Because of the closeness of the race for control of Congress, because of the magnitude of what's at stake, there's been an incredible amount of resources raised on both sides," said Axelrod, who's advising Duckworth and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, among other clients.

"From an Illinois standpoint, we've not only got two targeted battleground races in the 6th and 8th Congressional Districts, which is highly unusual in a market this expensive, we've also got both national committees in here [spending on] advertising for over a month."

And it's not just Illinois.

This political season an unprecedented $3.1 billion will be spent by candidates, political parties and activists on all methods to get their messages out, a 14.5 percent increase from 2004, according to PQ Media, a Connecticut-based custom media-research firm. Ninety percent of the nation's 210 media markets are up in spending.

Roughly half that amount will be devoted to television, almost 25 percent on direct mail and the rest spread across other media. Leo Kivijarv, PQ Media's vice president, said the increase is being driven by so many elections and initiatives being up for grabs.

While stations will make money on the surge in political commercials, it is not a total windfall. For candidates seeking federal office, government rules require stations not only to sell them time but sell it at what's known as the "lowest unit rate," meaning they pay the rate given the station's best customers.

In addition, the glut of political ads crowds out a lot of regular advertisers, although those that insist on airing spots pay a premium.

Because regular ads try to be uplifting, amusing and/or informative, the political stuff "makes it difficult for normal advertisers in the middle of that maelstrom," said Bill Carroll of Katz Media, which counsels local stations on programming and advertising issues.

"We do get complaints from viewers, not surprisingly, and it's frustrating for us because if it's a candidate ad, we have no choice but to take it," WLS' Barr said.

Carroll, however, notes it is no accident most stations do better financially in campaign years rather than non-election years.

"That's the good news," said Larry Wert, president and general manager of NBC-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5. "The bad news is it scares some people, [and] at some point the viewers are tired of watching the repetitive and negative ads, and it's not the most positive reflection on our content."