Sunday, July 13, 2008

Schauer Officially Kicks Off Campaign, DCCC to Contribute $1.5M for Ads

You are probably wondering to yourself, "Hey, just what has Mark Schauer been up to lately?" Well, when he isn't busy working to create jobs in Michigan, he's been out meeting with voters across the 7th Congressional District, officially kicking off his campaign this week with a tour that stretched from Battle Creek to Adrian and back again. Or something like that. He was all over the place.

Why don't we hear about it in more detail? The print media covered a few of the stops, but as Walberg Watch astutely points out, the difficulty for the Schauer campaign is that there is no one major media market that covers the 7th -

Of the 210 Designated Market Areas, there are four which cover the 7th District: Detroit, Lansing, Toledo, and Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek.

The map above (click on the link to see) shows each of the different media markets, with approximate boundaries of the 7th District drawn in. It's worth noting that there is some overlap. For example, in the Lansing market, Toledo's WTOL and WTVG are "significantly viewed out-of-market broadcast stations," as are WWMT and WOOD out of Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek. However, there's no one market which covers everyone in the district.

So how do you advertise in that? If you want to make sure you reach everyone everywhere, you've got to advertise in all four markets. But is it really worth it to have your ads also be playing in Muskegon, Michigan and Findlay, Ohio at the same time?


You don't have much choice. You are going to have to advertise in all four, and hope that the local TV media will spare some cameras to dispatch to your events as well. Unlike a Gary Peters ($1.1M for MI-09) that can concentrate in one media market (albeit a pricey one), Schauer has to spread it out - and we haven't even started to talk about radio, print and internet yet.

That's going to cost some serious money. Enter the DCCC, who has reserved $35 million in TV advertising time across the country, $1.5M for the race in MI-07 alone. How sweet it is!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved nearly $35 million on television advertisements in 31 House districts in for the fall campaign, offering a sneak preview of the central campaign battlegrounds and the party’s most vulnerable incumbents.

Ads will begin airing in early September and early October, according to documentation obtained by Politico.

By reserving television time for the fall campaign early on, the DCCC gets a discounted rate on often pricey advertising buys. If a race becomes less competitive, they can get their money refunded — occasionally with a small penalty assessed — or air additional ads in the same media market.


Playing it smart with the $$ and buying early. Gotta love that. According to the AP, the Republicans are woefully short on cash to counter.

Additionally, the Democratic committee reported more than $47 million in the bank at the end of May. The Republican counterpart group had $6.7 million.


Awww, how sad. DCCC make Republicans cry. All this pre-primary action is upsetting to them.

“The DCCC’s decision to break their pledge not to pre-primary endorse is just the latest in a laundry list of Democrat broken promises this Congress,” said a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Ken Spain.


We don't really want to get into the laundry list of broken Republican promises, do we? Well, we will, just not right now. We'll save that for the TV ads so everyone can see.

Congratulations to our Michigan candidates, and thanks go out to the DCCC for stepping up to help.