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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

ATLA Throws Down in Five House Races

Posted by DavidNYC

From the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (via an e-mail):

The Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) today began running television and radio ads in four congressional districts: IN-02 (Rep. Chris Chocola), NC-11 (Rep. Charles Taylor), NM-01 (Rep. Heather Wilson), OH-15 (Rep. Deborah Pryce). Additional ads will begin airing on Wednesday in PA-10 (Rep. Don Sherwood).

The ads urge constituents to contact their members of Congress, who have voted to put corporate profits of the oil, gas and pharmaceutical industries before the safety and well-being of the public, and tell them to do the right thing when taking future votes.

...

The total ad buy is more than $500,000.

Of course, I'm sure the various GOP incumbents will denounce their counterparts as being in the pockets of greedy trial lawyers, etc. But the fact is, these ads will be on the air for a good long while - at best, each Republican campaign can muster a single press release's worth of indignation out of this. Of course, the Club for Growth will probably be quick to respond, but for now, I'm just glad that ATLA is ponying up.

And I'm also happy that they've picked PA-10. That might be the single cheapest media market of all of our major pick-up opportunities. (Rothenberg, by the way, just moved this race into his "Tossup/Tilt Republican" category.) ATLA should be able to flood the airwaves here. Let's hope it helps.

P.S. You can see & hear the ads here.

Posted at 08:04 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Media | Technorati

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Comments

Thanks for the PA-10 props. ATLA seems to be matching the Big Pharma buy supporting sherwood here (technically it is US Chamber), but the ATLA ads are definitely stronger and have higher production value.

Also, the club for growth has called sherwood a RINO in the past, so I don't think sherwood will get much help from them, especially in his damaged condition.

Keep up the good work!

Best,

Drew
Carney for Congress

Posted by: DrewEM at August 30, 2006 09:13 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I saw the news today that they were running the ATLA ads here in New MExico against Heather Wilson. As I said on NM FBIHOP, I think it is a good thing -- we need all the help we can get here.

Tying Rep. Heather Wilson to Big Oil and Big Pharma are important, something we need to get out as many times as possible.

Posted by: LP at August 30, 2006 09:52 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

You say these ads will be on the air for "a good long while", but if I do the math crudely:

"More than" $500,000 (but probably not a lot more, if they're using that as a round figure) for 5 districts. So, $100k or so a district. In most markets, what does $100k get you on the air? A week?

Posted by: James L. at August 30, 2006 11:17 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Depends on a lot of factors, of course. But one thing to note is that part of this is a radio buy, and radio is really cheap. Another, as I note, is that PA-10 is an incredibly cheap media market. I doubt you could spend $100K on ads in a single week there, unless you ran from morning 'till night.

I might have over-estimated the length of time, but unless ATLA is going for a short-term saturation burst, I expect these ads would run for a few weeks.

Posted by: DavidNYC at August 30, 2006 05:51 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment