Norwood ads to dominate before mayoral election

By Cameron McWhirter

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you watch local television this weekend, get ready to see a lot of Mary Norwood.

The Atlanta mayoral candidate has bought more than $142,000 worth of local television ads in the last days before the Nov. 3 election. The city councilwoman is spending about two-and-a-half times more on TV ads this weekend than Lisa Borders and about four-and-a-half times as much as Kasim Reed, according to public records filed with local television stations as of Wednesday afternoon. Campaigns could buy some more air time until Friday, but that is unlikely as most of the available ad time has been sold.

Political commercials on local television stations are traditionally an important part of campaigning in Atlanta. As the race heads into its final weekend, Atlanta’s top mayoral candidates have been using all kinds of ways to reach voters, including print ads, direct mail, radio, yard signs, cable television and the Internet. Who will win Tuesday’s contest is anybody guess, but pricey television ad buys often are an indication of the financial state of campaigns.

By the financial measure, Norwood is winning big. The councilwoman has been hoarding her funds for months. At the beginning of October, she had well over $600,000, while Borders and Reed had less than $250,000 each. In the final days of the race, Norwood is dropping a huge chunk of that warchest on TV time — most with the two largest stations, WSB and WAGA.

Norwood’s campaign manager, Roman Levit, said flooding the market with Norwood commercials at the end of the race was always the campaign’s plan.

“What you are seeing is the execution of that strategy,” he said

In Atlanta, a mayoral candidate needs to receive more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off election. Some recent polls have put Norwood in the mid-40s, within the stastical margin for victory.

Borders, who has not been buying many television ads this month, just purchased about $54,000 for ads at WSB and WAGA for this weekend and early next week.

Liz Flowers, Borders’ campaign manager, said her team also is sending out direct mail and buying ad time on cable programs. Flowers said Borders has had to be much more careful about spending money than Norwood.

“If I had $600,000, I would just pull my Uzi and shoot at everything too,” she said.

She said she believes Borders’ strategy will be successful, but “we’ll see on Tuesday.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Reed had made about $38,000 in local TV ad buys for the final days of the race. Reed spokesman Reese McCranie said the campaign will be buying more ad time in coming days, but he would not say how much. A fourth candidate, Jesse Spikes, isn’t spending anything on local television in the run-up to the election. Records show he purchased a few spots in September.