WI Ad Project: WH Candidates Have Spent $15M Since Conventions

The University of Wisconsin Advertising Project has a report out today noting that the WH candidates have spent a whopping $15M since the conventions wrapped the first week in September.

Other tidbits:

-- Almost all (97 percent) of the airings in support of Barack Obama were sponsored by the candidate, with the remaining three percent paid for by the Democratic National Committee. On the other side, the majority of John McCain's ads (57 percent) were run in cooperation between the candidate and the party, with the remainder aired by the McCain campaign.

-- This year's battleground map is looking ever more like 2004's battleground map. And McCain is outspending Obama in the contest's 10 key states, $4,496,000 $3,564,000.

-- Total spending, however, since the conventions is almost even: McCain spent $7,803,000 to Obama's $7,768,000.

After the jump, check out the project's report of candidate spending by state. Note that McCain has sunk more ad dollars into CO, IA, NH, NM, NV, PA and OH. Obama, meanwhile, is spending bigger bucks in FL, MI, MO, NC and VA.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Table 1: Advertising Spending by State
McCain Obama
Colorado $553,000 $522,000
Florida $1,040,000 $1,327,000
Iowa $352,000 $148,000
Indiana None $263,000
Michigan $761,000 $954,000
Minnesota $472,000 $18,000
Missouri $353,000 $504,000
Montana None $37,000
North Carolina $245,000 $300,000
North Dakota <$1,000 $22,000
New Hampshire $225,000 $172,000
New Mexico $214,000 $155,000
Nevada $365,000 $297,000
Ohio $812,000 $801,000
Pennsylvania $1,612,000 $948,000
Virginia $312,000 $868,000
Wisconsin $487,000 $432,000
* Money spent by the Obama campaign in Minnesota was in the Rochester market,
which also covers parts of northern Iowa.