St. Louis: 'The perfect storm' for political ads

WASHINGTON - If you were a political commercial, where would you be? Chances are, St. Louis.

The city saw 18,755 political ads this summer and early fall, making it the nation's most popular market.

''St. Louis is the perfect storm,'' said Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin, meaning the Missouri city is a place where political factors have combined for a powerful result, much as weather factors did for the storm chronicled in the popular book and movie.

When it comes to political ads, not all states are considered equal. Only 21 states have seen any significant advertising in the presidential race, and even fewer have other competitive races to pump up the advertising.

So while New York is the nation's largest city and has one of the most competitive Senate contests, the presidential race is not close there, meaning there have been no presidential ads. New York ranks No. 16 on the ad list.

Market No. 2 was on the other side of Missouri, in Kansas City, where 14,872 ads aired, according to data released Thursday from a study being conducted by Goldstein for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

With competitive presidential and gubernatorial races, and - until this week's death of Gov. Mel Carnahan - a super-tight Senate race, Missouri has been a magnet for TV ads. Washington state and Michigan, with close Senate and House races, follow close behind.

The seven most popular markets were in either Missouri, Washington or Michigan.

The figures include advertising by all candidates, parties and interest groups in all political races between June 1 and Oct. 10.

The Brennan study also examined spending in the nation's closest congressional races and found that the Democratic Party is outspending the Republicans in ''soft money'' issue ads - advertising paid for with unrestricted donations.

That's unusual, Goldstein said, because the Republicans usually outspend the Democrats. And the party in power - in this case in Congress, the GOP - usually spends more.

The study looked at spending in the top markets in four hot Senate races - Michigan, Missouri, New York and Virginia. It found that the Democratic Party has spent more than $11 million this year versus less than $6 million by the Republicans.

But the Republican candidates themselves more than made up the difference, spending more than $23 million to just $13.5 million by the Democrats.

Looking at 41 competitive House races, the Democratic Party also overwhelmed the GOP, spending more than $5.6 million versus just $1.7 million by the Republican Party.

GOP candidates edged the Democrats, but it was outside interest groups that really made up the difference. Interest groups have spent some $8.8 million to help Republicans versus just $5 million for Democrats.