The U.S. presidential candidates have spent almost $195 million (125.64 million) on television ads so far in this extended primary season, with the Democratic contenders paying the bulk at about $136 million (87.6 million), an analysis of political advertising shows.
Democrat Barack Obama himself has outspent all the Republicans combined by more than $17 million (11 million). The Republican primary race ended in March when John McCain claimed his party's nomination.
The University of Wisconsin's Advertising Project analyzed data from the TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks political advertising. The study looked at more than 327,000 ads that aired during the primary season.
Obama led in ad spending over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, $75 million (48.3 million) to $46 million (29.6 million). The two have been competing in contests for almost five months. John Edwards, who exited the race in late January, spent more than $8 million (5.2 million).
The Democrats' figures greatly surpass those from the last presidential race in 2004, when the party's candidates spent $51 million (32.9 million).
"We probably had more money spent in Iowa this year than was spent in the entire Democratic primary in 2004," Ken Goldstein, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the project's director, said in a telephone interview. Iowa's caucuses were the lead-off races in the presidential campaign season.
The study found that the Obama campaign used ads to good advantage in a string of nine states he won after the so-called "Super Tuesday" series of almost two dozen races in February, a period when he started to pull away from Clinton.
In most of those states, he was the first to show ads "and had the paid media airways all to himself for a significant part of the short campaigns."
On the Republican side, candidates spent more than $57 million (36.7 million) in ads. Mitt Romney topped the field, racking up more than $31 million (20 million). That was almost three times what McCain has spent _ roughly $11 million (7.1 million). Rudy Giuliani spent almost $6 million (3.9 million), while Mike Huckabee spent less than $4 million (2.6 million).
Interest groups have not spent as much, but that will change going into the November election, Goldstein said.
Interest groups spent about $8 million (5.15 million) on ads _ of which roughly $3 million (1.9 million) were paid for by the Service Employees International Union. The union, which backs Obama, spent more than $2 million in spots promoting their candidate and about $800,000 (515,430) in ads against McCain.
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On the Net:
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