It's Kurtz, but it's still a good round-up of the advertisement strategy for the looming February 3 primaries (Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina).
Excerpt:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60963-2003Dec12.htmlThe Feb. 3 vote in South Carolina, where a loss could knock Edwards out of the race and cripple several other candidates, is one of seven showdowns that day that could thin the Democratic presidential field in a hurry. And unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, where the emphasis is on town meetings and shaking hands at coffee shops and plant gates, the unofficial first Super Tuesday of the 2004 race is a costly and crucial war on the airwaves.
"It's the drop-dead date for several of the candidates," said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "It's D-Day. If they come away empty-handed, they'll get the message that it's quitting time."
Campaign strategists are feverishly vacuuming up intelligence about their rivals' advertising buys and placing big-money gambles on the Feb. 3 states they believe can boost their own candidates into contention with Howard Dean. Given the far-flung nature of the contests a week after New Hampshire -- in South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, Delaware, New Mexico, North Dakota and Missouri -- the other candidates on the airwaves are counting on 30-second spots to carry their messages and keep them in the game.
The result, said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus, is that "figuring out where to run ads and not run ads could mean success or failure on the 3rd."
According to figures from local stations that were supplied by one of the campaigns, Dean has spent $4.4 million overall on ads; Edwards, $3.3 million; Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), $3 million; Gephardt, $1.5 million; retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, $1.1 million; and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), $1.1 million. 
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