Romney Outspending Obama On TV In Swing States

By Dick Morris on October 11, 2012

This week, thanks to a big increase in its television spending, Mitt Romney has turned the tables on the president and now is spending more on television advertising in the swing states.

Buoyed by a 64% increase in his television spending (vs. only 2% for Obama) Romney is spending $22.4 million on ads in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada compared to $17.5 million for President Obama. In the previous week — and for several weeks before that — Obama had a spending edge. In the week of October 1st, Obama outspent Romney by $17.2 to $14.8 million.

This emerging gap in ad spending may account, in part, for the widening lead Romney is posting with each passing day in most polling.

In Florida, for example, Romney is outspending Obama by $1.2 million this week while Obama spent $650,000 more last week.

The following chart compares the advertising spending on television for the week of October 8th compared with the spending for the week of October 1st. The figures include all spending by and on behalf of the candidate, whether from his own campaign committee, the national party, or an outside PAC or independent expenditure:

Florida:

Romney – $6,530,661 ($3,504,993 previous)

Obama – $5,323,353 ($4,147,140 previous)

Ohio:

Romney – $4,381,999 ($4,403,999 previous)

Obama – $3,861,100 ($4,286,664 previous)

Virginia:

Romney – $5,093,574 ($3,937,296 previous)

Obama – $4,377,565 ($4,599,713 previous)

Colorado:

Romney – $2,387,209 ($979,094 previous)

Obama – $1,628,946 ($1,710,591 previous)