Remember, folks, those with the most $$$ USUALLY WIN!!!
"A final push in most expensive campaign; Obama presses edge over McCain in funding" by Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff | October 30, 2008
Obama has been pressing his lopsided fund-raising advantage to challenge McCain in states long considered safe for Republican presidential candidates.
The RNC has helped McCain narrow the gap with Obama, but the problem for the Republicans is that they are almost exclusively playing defense as the clock ticks to Nov. 4, trying to hold off Obama in states carried by President Bush in 2004.
Among states that Democrat John F. Kerry won four years ago, McCain and the RNC are making a concerted effort in only one, Pennsylvania; in 17 other states, Republicans are either trying to defend states won by Bush or making token efforts in Democratic-leaning states. And even in Pennsylvania, Obama will outspend them by about $900,000 for the week through Election Day in the Keystone State, according to the Obama campaign data.
In the final week, McCain and the RNC will outspend Obama's campaign in the battlegrounds of Ohio, Florida, and Missouri, the report shows. The RNC made its heaviest last-minute purchases of airtime in Florida ($4.2 million) and Ohio ($3.4 million), two Bush states in which Obama is even or slightly ahead in the polls.
Adjust your map accordingly, readers.
However, in the Sunshine State, considered a lock for McCain only two months ago, Obama had been airing uncontested ads for months and by Election Day will have outspent the Republican and the RNC, $36 million to $13 million. In the Buckeye State, which tipped the Electoral College to Bush in 2004, Obama will have outspent McCain and the RNC by a small amount, about $1 million out of a combined $62 million by both sides.
Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, and Montana are other traditionally safe Republican states where Obama's team spent large sums on TV ads for months before McCain and the RNC responded, after polling data showed the Democrat pulling ahead or nearly even in polls. This week, the RNC jumped in to defend Montana, buying about $290,000 worth of ads in a state Bush carried by 20 percentage points four years ago. The Obama campaign has spent more than $2.2 million in Montana.
The RNC also boosted its advertising in support of McCain in West Virginia, a state Bush won by 13 points in 2004 and where both sides have been buying airtime in markets that reach into the neighboring battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia.
Four weeks ago, the McCain campaign abandoned Michigan, another big state won by Kerry, and in the final week has all but written off New Hampshire and Wisconsin, two other states Kerry captured and where recent polls show Obama with commanding leads and heavily outspending McCain on the airwaves.
The only states where the McCain campaign and the GOP have maintained a clear-cut TV spending edge over Obama are Iowa, where Bush eked out a win in 2004, and Minnesota, where Kerry prevailed. Obama leads McCain in both states by double digits in most recent public polls. --more--"
So McCain also takes Iowa and Minnesota?
Also see: What the Electoral Map Looks Like in a Fair Election
