Early campaign ads intensify 2008 election

Name recognition helps
Leading candidates such as Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republicans John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have strong name identification and have not had to use television commercials to introduce themselves to potential voters. Their ad campaigns probably will begin in earnest in September.

For Romney, the task has been different. He had the money — he raised $20 million in the first three months of the year — but not the name recognition. In addition, he had been the Republican governor of liberal Massachusetts and conservatives were not prepared to embrace him with open arms.

Because he was an unknown, “introducing Mitt Romney was a challenge,” Castellanos said. “But it was also our greatest opportunity to tell people who this guy is and what he cares about.”

Romney spent $2 million in the first three months of the campaign on introductory ads that stressed his biography. This month, he ramped up his advertising, spending about the same amount on ads in New Hampshire, Iowa and on national cable, especially Fox News, whose audience tends to be more conservative. He also chose to be on the air in May, a sweeps month when networks aim to attract most of their viewers.

He capitalized on the Senate immigration debate, injecting a new commercial that denounced “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. Last week, he confronted the Massachusetts albatross with an ad that described his home state as “the most liberal state in the country.”

“In the toughest place,” the ad concludes, “Mitt Romney’s done the toughest things.”

So does past political experience
On the Democratic front, Richardson appears to have made the most of his campaign ads. They have stressed his experience as a member of Congress, a Cabinet secretary, a U.N. ambassador and now a governor. He has moved up in some polls into fourth position behind Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

Richardson’s ads, a two-part series, portray him as an applicant pitching his experience to an indifferent job interviewer. In one ad, his interviewer runs through his credentials, stops, takes a bite from a sandwich, and asks “So, what makes you think you can be president?”

Dodd has run ads in both Iowa and New Hampshire calling on Clinton and Obama to support cutting off money for the war in Iraq. After both senators voted with Dodd to advance the bill, Dodd aired a commercial gloating: “It worked. Now Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have changed their positions to follow Chris Dodd.”

Dante Scala, a political scientist at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., said, “I see Richardson and Dodd making some space for themselves in the race and I think the ads have been a part of that.”

Edwards plays small-ball
Edwards has not had to spend too much money on ads. The former Democratic vice presidential nominee is ahead of Obama and Clinton in Iowa polls and is a strong contender to repeat his first-place finish in South Carolina in 2004.

He has used the small ad buys to try to distinguish himself as an anti-war candidate and to prod his opponents who are in the Senate to stand up to President Bush.

“Edwards’ strategy is to become part of the dialogue,” said Tracey, the ad tracker. “He’s doing very well in Iowa. He’s essentially protecting a lead there.”

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