Despite a deluge of campaign spending over the last few months by Republican-leaning outside groups, Democratic candidates and their allies have outspent Republicans over all on television advertising in House races, according to data provided by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising. In Senate races, however, Republicans outspent Democrats.
The most recent numbers available, through Friday, showed that Democratic candidates and their allies spent $142 million on television advertising across all House races in the general election, compared with $119 million by Republican candidates and their backers. In the Senate, Republican candidates and their allies outspent Democrats, $159 million to $120 million.
The Democratic advantage on television spending in House races was something of a revelation, given all the attention that has been garnered this year by the staggering expenditures by Republican-oriented independent groups after a Supreme Court ruling in January that lifted restrictions on corporate political spending.
But it appears that the Republican-leaning groups were able to make a significant impact in many House races by leveling the playing field for underfinanced Republican challengers, who in previous elections might have had little chance against Democratic incumbents.
“Republican groups basically provided the advertising version of bridge loans for the underfunded challengers, running ads before they could go up on the air for themselves,” said Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
The pro-Republican groups were able to expand the political map, going up early with attack ads against Democratic candidates who had seemed to be in comfortable positions and putting them on the defensive.
What has remained something of an open question, however, was which party ultimately has had the financial upper hand, when spending by party committees and the candidates themselves was added to the spending by outside groups.
Democratic Party committees, for instance, have raised significantly more money than their Republican counterparts. And, in competitive House races, Democratic candidates have generally had a financial edge over their Republican opponents as well.
Making accurate total comparisons is difficult, in part because of limitations in the data available from the Federal Election Commission. A truly comprehensive analysis of candidate spending would also require diving into figures for specific expenditures.
As a result, the tabulations of television spending by the Campaign Media Analysis Group are useful. Those tallies, however, do not include spending on other activities, like radio and direct mail or local cable TV ads.
The overall Democratic spending advantage on television in the House holds true not only for all races, but also when just the 105 races that the group classifies as competitive are considered. Democrats have so far outspent Republicans on television in 68 of those 105 contests. In all House races, Republican-leaning outside groups spent $38 million on television, compared with $13 million by Democratic-oriented groups. But Democratic candidates outspent Republican ones, $97 million to $49 million. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also outspent the national Republican Congressional Committee, $30 million to $26 million.
In the Senate, television spending by the candidates has been roughly equal, with both sides spending more than $80 million, while Republican-leaning third-party groups have swamped their Democratic counterparts, $58 million to $21 million. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has outspent its Republican counterpart, but the difference comes nowhere close to eliminating the gap among independent groups.
Nevertheless, Democratic candidates and their allies have managed to battle Republicans essentially to a draw on TV spending in certain crucial Senate contests — notably, Nevada and Colorado, according to the data. They had a slight advantage in Washington. But in races in Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania, Republicans had the edge. (source)
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