Democrats buy a TV edge in Georgia races for U.S. Senate, governor
Democrats seized the broadcast television ad spending advantage in Georgia's U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races in mid-September, according to a new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.
The raw numbers from Kantar Media/CMAG go like this: From Sept. 12-25, there have been 4,945 total ads in the Senate race. Of that sum, 2,780 favored Michelle Nunn and 2,165 favored David Perdue.
A mere 1.01 percent of Democratic ads were from outside groups -- meaning the Nunn campaign is doing all the heavy lifting. But after outside Republican groups provided all of Perdue's air cover for a while, they provided just 15.24 percent of the ads in mid-September.
In all, Democrats spent $1.7 million on TV in that span and Republicans spent $1.6 million.
In the governor's contest there were 4,625 spots, with 2,364 favoring Democrats and 2,261 favoring Republicans. Just 1.18 percent came from outside groups on the Democratic side, while 10.84 percent came from outside Republican sources. Democrats outspent Republicans in that stretch $1.43 million to $990,000.
The analysis also reveals that there were more ads in Georgia's 12th District in that stretch than any other U.S. House race in the country -- a whopping 4,051. U.S. Rep. John Barrow and national Democrats had a considerable advantage in that race, according to the data: 2,611 spots and $800,000 spent, compared to Rick Allen and Republicans' 1,440 spots and $460,000.
