Ehrlich has increased media spending
Baltimore Sun colleague Julie Bykowicz reports:
Republican former Gov. Robert L Ehrlich Jr. has spent more than $2.6 million on advertising on television and other media in the past month and a half, a campaign finance report released Saturday morning shows.
Ehrlich ad buys are a dramatic increase from the much tinier amount — roughly $100,000 — he spent on advertising between April, when he anounced his election bid, and the beginning of September, the last time finance reports were made public.
By contrast, Gov. Martin O’Malley has invested steadily in media throughout the election season. From the beginning of the year through early September, the Democratic candidate spent about $1 million on advertising and other media outreach. His latest camapign finance report was’t immediately available Saturday.
Reports for all statewide and local candidates were due Friday night to the State Board of Elections. They are expected to be made public over the weekend and will provide the final look at campaign finances before Election Day.
O’Malley’s campaign said Friday that it has raised about $1.6 million in the past month and a half, compared with $2.8 million raised by the Ehrlich campaign over the same period.
As of a week ago, O’Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown had about $1.1 million in the bank, while Ehrlich and running mate Mary Kane had $1.7 on hand.
But O’Malley’s campaign aides say they have already purchased advertising spaces through Election Day. It does not appear that Ehrlich’s campaign had done that.
Ehrlich’s latest report also shows he had spent more than $400,000 on campaign employee salaries since the beginning of September, about $300,000 on direct mailings to voters and about $125,000 to hold fund-raising events.
On the contribution side, he accepted about $62,000 from Maryland Political Action Committees, about $16,000 from federal committees, about $15,000 from political committees in other states and about $25,000 from other Maryland political candidates.
Categories: Campaign finance, Candidate Watch 2010, People, Political ads
Comments
Schurick, Two Massonis, Fawell must be sad to take a paycut after next week.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 23, 2010 12:15 PM
money for Ehrlich is money down a rat hole.
Posted by: willie don | October 23, 2010 1:43 PM
@Willie don: better money down a rathole than having a rat (MOM) take it from you.
Posted by: Danny | October 23, 2010 2:40 PM
@ willie don: better to have your money go down a rat hole than have a rat (MOM) take it fom you!
Posted by: Danny | October 23, 2010 2:41 PM
Save your money, Bobby. We are already tired of the ads you've been running.
Posted by: Woodie731 | October 23, 2010 6:48 PM
How many kickbacks have the DEMS had? Where has all our increased tax money gone since O'Malley took over? I've been unemployed for 2 yrs. can't find a job. We need a change.
Posted by: Karen | October 24, 2010 9:05 PM
Need a change, O'Malley, Dems-too many taxes and I haven't found a job for 2 yrs.
Posted by: Karen | October 24, 2010 9:07 PM
Dems/O'malley, too high taxes and too high unemployment
Posted by: K | October 24, 2010 9:09 PM
Dems/O'malley, too high taxes and too high unemployment
Posted by: K | October 24, 2010 9:09 PM
Governor Ehrlich has been a huge disappointment for Maryland Republicans. His campaign has been anemic. I guess it's no surprise; does he really want to be Governor, wrestle with Democrats in the General Assembly and make tough decisions or would he rather stay at his law firm and rake in another 2.5 million bucks lobbying for big business?
Posted by: David | October 25, 2010 6:55 AM
All kinds of dollars I'm sure being poured legally or otherwise into late campaign. Awoke this Saturday morning to find that -- overnight -- someone had posted what must have been hundreds of signs on lightpoles and telephone polls surrounding Patterson Park. The 3 ft by 4 ft signs simply had a big image of the president and said "Support Obama, Vote on November 2." They were taped and stapled everywhere...took down 20 of them myself.
Posted by: micahelporter | October 25, 2010 3:11 PM
I have definitely noticed that Ehrlich has dramatically increased his advertising efforts over the past few weeks. I often listen to WBAL radio in the afternoon and this week was the first time that I have heard an Ehrlich advertisement on WBAL, while I have been hearing O’Malley advertisements since June. While it is common to increase the amount of advertising that one does prior to the election, in Ehrlich’s case it seems to be too little, too late.
As the article mentioned, the O’Malley campaign advertisements have been going on full force for months with very little response from Ehrlich’s campaign. This has increased O’Malley’s influence over the voters and has allowed the negative campaign ads to tarnish the former governor’s image. As another commenter mentioned, it also gives the impression that Ehrlich did not really care much about winning the campaign.
Given the current national anti-democratic party sentiment and Ehrlich’s former popularity as governor, I think that he could have won this election if only he had taken the campaign more seriously.
Posted by: Stephanie_O | October 26, 2010 12:01 PM