October 17th Update on Presidential Visits and Spending
Laura Kirshner
// Published October 17, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
With three weeks to go until Election Day, the Presidential candidates are narrowing down the list of states where they are focusing resources and time; and, in what should be no surprise, Ohio is now the most-visited state, and Florida and Pennsylvania lead the pack the campaign ad spending. Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania were also the three most important states in 2004, when the conventional wisdom-- and ultimately correct assessment -- was that the candidate winning at least two of those states would take the White House.
FairVote has tracked presidential and vice-presidential candidate visits since September 6, the first day after the Republican convention. Ohio topped the list of campaign visits during the week of October 8 to 14, receiving 28% of the week's visits. Three states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, received 60% of the week's visits. The previous visit leader, Michigan, did not receive a single visit. Signaled by John McCain's decision to pull back from the state, this change is in line with our predictions in last week's release. Nearly two-thirds of all states - 34 states- have not received a single public visit this fall from either Presidential candidate (FairVote's definition of states visits exclude fundraisers, scheduled debates and visits to candidates' home states).
FairVote's executive director Rob Richie commented, "The list of spectator states include both the small and the large, the east and the west, the South and the North. But nearly every single spectator state shares one feature: no one expects it be a tipping point that might decide the 2008 election. In our current Electoral College system, once a state is not competitive, its voters and their concerns are irrelevant to the campaigns."
Major Party Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidate Campaign Visits: Week of 10/8-10/14
Top Ten States for Total Campaign Visits: September 6 to October 14 (Full listing at www.fairvote.org/tracker)
Television Ad Spending, October 6-12
Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio beat out the other states both in terms of visits and in terms of ad spending. Campaign visits and ad spending as measures of campaign attention yield very similar results. Michigan dropped the most in the Visits rankings, and it also had the biggest drop in ad spending between this week and last week. Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had the largest increases in spending over the past week. Ohio had a drop in ad spending, primarily because McCain must focus his resources on competitive states that will yield higher electoral votes.
This week's figures confirm our previous findings that only a handful of states receive the vast majority of campaign attention from the candidates. The amount of money spent on campaign advertisements in the top 10 states during last week alone totals to $28 million. 17 states had over $43 million pumped into their local economies this week, while voters in the 33 states had no ad spending at all. This amount of total spending will likely increase in the final weeks before Election Day, but we expect that spending to be allocated primarily to an even smaller number of closely contested states. Voters in the other 2/3 of the country can still expect the same thing as usual--not much.
For several election cycles, the states considered to be battleground states in close election have been largely the same. Election after election, most voters are still left out of the campaign spotlight while a handful of swing-state voters get all the candidates' attention. The impact of this disparity can be measured by voter participation. In 2004, eligible voters under 30 living in one of the 10 closest battleground states were more than a third more likely to participate than were voters in the rest of the nation.
FairVote has posted its full candidate trackers at http://fairvote.org/tracker. Visitors to http://fairvote.org/president will find information on the National Popular Vote plan, which promises to make 2008 the last year with the current Electoral College system, and our 2006 report Presidential Elections Inequality that provides detailed information on the last four decades of presidential elections and the impact of the current Electoral College system on the 2004 elections.
FairVote will continue to collect data on campaign visits up until Election Day to see how the focus of each campaign changes. We will issue weekly updates of our candidate tracker, supplemented by data on campaign financing. We also will plan to release an updated version of our Presidential Elections Inequality report soon after the election that will allow us to anticipate what states are likely to be battleground states in 2012 Our report will include a detailed analysis of campaign attention based on visits, spending, and advertisements in each state by each of the two major party campaigns and their independent backers.
With three weeks to go until Election Day, the Presidential candidates are narrowing down the list of states where they are focusing resources and time; and, in what should be no surprise, Ohio is now the most-visited state, and Florida and Pennsylvania lead the pack the campaign ad spending. Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania were also the three most important states in 2004, when the conventional wisdom-- and ultimately correct assessment -- was that the candidate winning at least two of those states would take the White House.
FairVote has tracked presidential and vice-presidential candidate visits since September 6, the first day after the Republican convention. Ohio topped the list of campaign visits during the week of October 8 to 14, receiving 28% of the week's visits. Three states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, received 60% of the week's visits. The previous visit leader, Michigan, did not receive a single visit. Signaled by John McCain's decision to pull back from the state, this change is in line with our predictions in last week's release. Nearly two-thirds of all states - 34 states- have not received a single public visit this fall from either Presidential candidate (FairVote's definition of states visits exclude fundraisers, scheduled debates and visits to candidates' home states).
FairVote's executive director Rob Richie commented, "The list of spectator states include both the small and the large, the east and the west, the South and the North. But nearly every single spectator state shares one feature: no one expects it be a tipping point that might decide the 2008 election. In our current Electoral College system, once a state is not competitive, its voters and their concerns are irrelevant to the campaigns."
Major Party Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidate Campaign Visits: Week of 10/8-10/14
State Number of visits
1. Ohio 7
2. Pennsylvania 5
3. Wisconsin 3
4. Virginia 2
5. Missouri 2
6. Florida 2
7. New Hampshire 1
8. Minnesota 1
9. Iowa 1
10. North Carolina 1
Top Ten States for Total Campaign Visits: September 6 to October 14 (Full listing at www.fairvote.org/tracker)
State % of total visits (Ranking-% of visits as of previous week)The patterns of campaign visits tell us which states matter to the campaigns--and which do not. New information from TNS Media Intelligence on campaign advertisements in the various states supports the reality of how the campaigns are focused on a declining number of states. Spending in Michigan has dropped drastically over the last week, with McCain going from spending $720,000 on advertisements to zero. The states topping the list for campaign visits also top the list for campaign advertisements:
1. Ohio 12.6% (2 - 10.3%)
2. Pennsylvania 9.8% (3 - 9.3%)
3. Florida 9.8% (7 - 6.2%)
4. Michigan 8.4% (1 - 12.4%)
5. Virginia 8.4% (4 - 8.3%)
6. Wisconsin 7.7% (7 - 6.2%)
7. Missouri 6.3% (6 - 7.2%)
8. Colorado 6.3% (4 - 8.3%)
9. New York 5.6% (9 - 5.2%)
10. New Hampshire 3.5% (10 - 4.1%)
Television Ad Spending, October 6-12
In thousands.
*Numbers presented as money spent this week/last week
State McCain Obama Total Total change since last week
FL 1154 / 686 4330 / 2224 5484 / 2910 +2574
PA 1780 / 1322 3337 / 2264 5117 / 3586 +1531
VA 285 / 319 3305 / 1969 3590 / 2288 +1302
OH 816 / 1128 2362 / 2229 3178 / 3357 -179
IN 0 / 0 1804 / 628 1804 / 628 +1176
NC 833 / 157 1208 / 1180 2041 / 1337 +704
WI 622 / 710 1189 / 1158 1811 / 1868 -57
MO 674 / 200 1141 / 1586 1815 / 1786 -723
CO 647 / 838 923 / 987 1570 / 1825 -255
NM 297 / 320 878 / 198 1175 / 518 657
NV 416 / 320 878 / 626 1294 / 946 +348
MN 531 / 652 560 / 237 1091 / 889 +202
IA 434 / 299 376 / 176 810 / 475 +335
NH 118 / 189 470 / 349 588 / 538 +50
ME 37 / 0 154 / 59 191 / 59 +132
MT 0 / 0 173 / 73 173 / 73 +100
WV 59 / 46 34 / 52 93 / 98 -5
Total 8800 / 9360 32242/17867 41042 / 27227 +13815
*Source http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/15/143149/87
Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio beat out the other states both in terms of visits and in terms of ad spending. Campaign visits and ad spending as measures of campaign attention yield very similar results. Michigan dropped the most in the Visits rankings, and it also had the biggest drop in ad spending between this week and last week. Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had the largest increases in spending over the past week. Ohio had a drop in ad spending, primarily because McCain must focus his resources on competitive states that will yield higher electoral votes.
This week's figures confirm our previous findings that only a handful of states receive the vast majority of campaign attention from the candidates. The amount of money spent on campaign advertisements in the top 10 states during last week alone totals to $28 million. 17 states had over $43 million pumped into their local economies this week, while voters in the 33 states had no ad spending at all. This amount of total spending will likely increase in the final weeks before Election Day, but we expect that spending to be allocated primarily to an even smaller number of closely contested states. Voters in the other 2/3 of the country can still expect the same thing as usual--not much.
For several election cycles, the states considered to be battleground states in close election have been largely the same. Election after election, most voters are still left out of the campaign spotlight while a handful of swing-state voters get all the candidates' attention. The impact of this disparity can be measured by voter participation. In 2004, eligible voters under 30 living in one of the 10 closest battleground states were more than a third more likely to participate than were voters in the rest of the nation.
FairVote has posted its full candidate trackers at http://fairvote.org/tracker. Visitors to http://fairvote.org/president will find information on the National Popular Vote plan, which promises to make 2008 the last year with the current Electoral College system, and our 2006 report Presidential Elections Inequality that provides detailed information on the last four decades of presidential elections and the impact of the current Electoral College system on the 2004 elections.
FairVote will continue to collect data on campaign visits up until Election Day to see how the focus of each campaign changes. We will issue weekly updates of our candidate tracker, supplemented by data on campaign financing. We also will plan to release an updated version of our Presidential Elections Inequality report soon after the election that will allow us to anticipate what states are likely to be battleground states in 2012 Our report will include a detailed analysis of campaign attention based on visits, spending, and advertisements in each state by each of the two major party campaigns and their independent backers.