Nearly $200 million spent in race for the White House

Almost $200 million has been spent on television advertising so far during this presidential election year, with the overwhelming amount of recent spending coming from the race for the Democratic nomination, according to a study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In total, Democratic candidates for president have spent more than $135 million on campaign advertising, while Republican candidates have spent some $57 million.

Hillary Clinton has spent more than $46 million on campaign advertising, while Barack Obama has spent approximately $75 million on ads, more than the total amount spent by the entire Republican field.

The new study includes total spending by party and candidate and charts breaking down Obama and Clinton’s delegate counts and spending.

Ken Goldstein, professor of political science and director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, says the Democratic primary fight has afforded John McCain’s Republican campaign to get organized under little pressure from Democrats.

"While McCain may soon enough be fully engaged by the Democrats, a big story in this campaign is the hundreds of millions of dollars that were not spent attacking John McCain in February, March, April, and now May of 2008," Goldstein says.

He adds: "All the money being raised and spent by Obama and Clinton is not money being raised and spent by Democratic congressional candidates. This does not look to be an election decided at the margins. By any reasonable measure, the Democrats should win the presidency and strengthen their control of Congress. If they do not, the money that was not spent early on to define John McCain among swing voters in swing states and to strengthen Democratic congressional candidates this spring may be one of the reasons."

The study also found:

• Although he may not wear a flag pin on his lapel, nearly 30 percent of Obama’s campaign ads feature the American flag. Ads for John McCain contain the flag over 60 percent of the time.
• Since securing the Republican Party’s nomination, McCain has concentrated his advertising in states that will likely be competitive in the general election. His top targets include Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, and New Mexico.
• Throughout the campaign, Obama has narrated a greater percentage of his campaign ads than Clinton. Obama appears narrating more than 70 percent of his ads, while Clinton narrates only 35 percent of her ads.
• The top issue for Democratic presidential candidates has been health care. For both the Clinton and Obama campaigns, the most talked about issue in their campaign advertising has been health care.
• Republican presidential candidates have generally focused on the issues of taxes, immigration, and abortion in their campaign advertisements.
• Before becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain’s campaign advertising portrayed him as the national security candidate, highlighting the issues of defense policy and the Iraq war. Since securing the nomination, McCain’s campaign quickly pivoted the content of its campaign ads to address more domestic topics such as taxes and health care.
• Obama uses the word "change" in approximately 39 percent of his ads, while Clinton mentions "change" in only 10 percent of her ads. Obama says the word "experience" in less than 2 percent of his ads, while Clinton talks about experience in 15 percent of her ads. Clinton has not mentioned the word "experience" in any of her campaign advertising since April of this year.
• In the paid media, the Democratic presidential campaign has not been very negative, with neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton airing an actual attack ad. In any given week, the highest percentage of negative advertising aired by the Obama campaign has been 21 percent, and the highest percentage aired by the Clinton campaign has been 45 percent.