TPM: McCain Outspending Obama in Battleground States

[berni_mccoy]

Iowa: McCain has spent roughly $700,000 more than Obama.
Missouri: McCain has spent roughly half a million more than Obama.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/ad_buyer_mccain_outspending_ob.php

Ohio: McCain has spent approximately one million more than Obama.

Pennsylvania: McCain has spent roughly a million and a half more than Obama.

Michigan: McCain has outspent Obama by about a million dollars.

New Hampshire: Spending is about even.

New Mexico: McCain has spent approximately $300,000 more, and has outspent Obama by roughly two to one.

Nevada: McCain has outspent Obama by $800,000, also roughly two to one.

Missouri: McCain has spent $500,000 more than Obama.

Virginia: Obama has spent a million more than McCain, largely because Obama is advertising statewide while McCain is only up in a small part of the north.

Wisconsin: McCain has spent roughly a half million more than Obama.

North Dakota: Obama has outspent McCain by around $170,000.

The O-Team must have a grand strategy of timing in mind... force McCain to spend his money now while the Obama Campaign holds it for post-Labor Day.

Certainly explains the polls lately.

[liberal N proud]

1. All that just to keep the polls close?

Keep spending Johnny, Obama has more cash and still leading in most polls.
Once the Obama campaign cuts loose and goes into high gear, McCain will be out of money hopefully.

[Whisp]

2. yep, it's all part of the rope-a-dope strategy.

Lovin' it!

[sharp_stick]

3. IIRC McSame has to dump his cash

before the convention, once he's finished with the incestuous orgy in Minnesota he's limited to 84 million while Obama can outspend him to whatever degree he can raise money.

[Romulox]

4. Michigan is still a problem for Obama. You have been warned. nt

[Cha]

5. That buys a lot of

LIES. Not This Time, fucker.

[WeDidIt]

6. McCain has to blow his primary wad before the convention

because he cannot spend it in the general election.

Unlike Obama, who can spend every penny he has in the bank after his nomination.

[IndyOp]

7. ON TV. McCain is outspending on TV ads. Obama is vastly out-investing him on the ground.

Check out 538.com's take on this TPM article from the OP:
Context on Battleground Spending
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/context-on-battleground-spending.html

Obama is investing more massively than any campaign in the history of American politics on the ground game. McCain is essentially not investing in ground. His early summer numbers of 20,000 phone calls nationwide for a whole month would be those of a single, low-budget House campaign.

Further, the idea that McCain's spending is disproportionately concentrated in television advertising in battleground states needs the context that he's simply not spending it anywhere else. While we don't have enough hard numbers to compose a fancy pie chart, rest assured that McCain's would show a much, much higher percentage of his pie on television ads whereas Obama's would show an unprecedentedly large slice on his thousands of paid organizers and hundreds of field offices.

The Obama campaign is “The largest field operation in the history of American politics.”
- Boston Globe, July 19, 2008
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/organizing-update.html

To the uninitiated, that may sound impressive. Led by Steve Hildebrand, the Obama camp has been tight-lipped about its own numbers, as Martin's piece notes. But the reality is that on Monday alone in just Ohio, without revealing my sources, the Obama campaign made 109,029 persuasion phone calls. From general experience, contact rates are about 25%, meaning that for every phone call or door knocked, about 1 in 4 voters gives you information about their support or about their party or what issues are most important to them in helping them make up their mind. In turn, this information re-loops into the voter file and flows downstream until it's the final GOTV push.

Let’s do some quick math. Martin’s reporting suggests to us based on that ratio that nationwide, in one week, the McCain campaign talked to approximately 81,000 voters. The Obama campaign talked to about 27,000 in one state in one night. If we make a reasonable guess that Ohio has something like one-fifteenth of Obama organizers and volunteers, that’d be 405,000 voters contacted in one night nationwide. In 7 days, that’s 2,835,000 voters contacted, compared to the McCain 81,000, a thirty-five-fold edge.

[berni_mccoy]

9. Ah, that's a very excellent article!

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I added it up and McCain spent $5.7 more however Obama got $7.5

Donations in one day in California last week. McCain has got to spend his money
now on ads that won't have as much impact until after the convention and
the Olympics.