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In 3rd District primary, Huber buys TV time early and often

ERIE—As Republicans Paul Huber and Mike Kelly jockey for the GOP nomination to take on Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper (D-3), Huber has entered the home stretch with large purchases of TV ads that, at least for now, are largely burying Kelly on the airwaves.

Huber has already committed to spending more than $150,000 on broadcast television in the Erie media market through the May 18 primary, with a third of that amount having already been spent as of Wednesday, according to public records gathered from network affiliates here. For Huber, the ad blitz amounts to the final steps of a campaign that started last summer, one in which he’s loaned $250,000 of his own money to the effort. Huber began advertising on Erie broadcast, the cheapest of the state’s major media markets, on April 7, starting with a relatively small buy of, for example, 23 spots per week on the local CBS affiliate and 39 spots per week on the local NBC affliction. But his campaign is ramping up slowly but surely, buying 54 spots on NBC over the next week and 82 spots in the week before the primary.

Kelly only got into the race earlier this year, but has also loaned his campaign $165,000. He finished with about $100,000 less campaign cash than Huber, which, combined with the late start, likely explains his campaign’s decision to hold off on a larger ad blitz—a decision that could pay off if voters find his message more compelling in the final days. Kelly began a limited ad buy on cable last week, and was set to go up on broadcast TV on Tuesday, with buys ranging from about $1,000 to about $8,000, depending on the network. His campaign plans to stay on the air until the primary, and has matched some of Huber’s ad buys on cable, which included limited time in the Pittsburgh and Youngstown media markets.

The data from all four network affiliates here is the first detailed snapshot of how the two front-runners in the crowded, six-way primary are spending their money, and indicates that Huber could be going into the final three weeks with an early edge in district-wide name recognition, though no public polling has been done to gauge that.

“It’s a significant buy,” Huber’s campaign manager Danny O’Driscoll told pa2010.com. What we’re trying to do is reach out to voters throughout the district and make sure that they know Paul’s message about what we need to do to create jobs, grow the economy, cut spending and repeal this health care bill.”

Kelly is expected to enjoy significant name recognition in Butler County, where he owns a prominent car dealership. But neither candidate is a well-known figure throughout the vast, northwest Pennsylvania district. When pre-primary campaign finance reports are filed soon, they will show heavy expenditures on direct mail by Kelly’s campaign leading up to his TV ad buy. Jon Hopcraft, Kelly’s campaign manager, said the campaign was using a “sophisticated” voter contact system.

“We want to make sure we’re talking to the people who will be voting in this election,” he said. “And to blanket the airwaves early like that—if you have the money, great. But we want to make sure Mike talks to real people, and we want people to see that Mike’s not a politician.”

See a video clip below of Huber’s opening remarks during a debate Monday in Meadville.

April 28, 2010 at 11:19 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Kathy Dahlkemper, Mike Kelly, PA-3, Paul Huber

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