The Democratic presidential candidates are spending unprecedented amounts of money on campaign advertising in Pennsylvania, saturating television markets as Tuesday’s state presidential primary approaches.
The ad barrage, political analysts say, could wind up backfiring on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
A new poll by Franklin and Marshall College found that Clinton’s ads, which respondents considered more negative than Obama’s by a margin of 2-1, might be creating a backlash.
The poll reported that her favorability ratings among likely Democratic voters had slipped seven points since March, from 65 percent to 58 percent, and her lead over Obama had decreased by 10 points. The survey cited her attack ads as a possible cause for the decline.
“Her tenor is perceived as more negative, apparently by a lot of people, than his,” said Michael Young, managing partner of Michael Young Strategic Research, based in Pennsylvania. “It appears not to be helping her.”
The two rivals have spent nearly $13 million in Pennsylvania on television advertising in the past five weeks, according to Neil Oxman, a founder of the Campaign Group, a media consulting company.
Obama has shelled out $9.2 million on television advertising in the past five weeks, dwarfing Clinton’s outlays of $3.75 million. Oxman called Obama’s ad spending extraordinary.
Oxman said the ad blitz was tolerable because the campaign is relatively short — and because it ends Tuesday.
“I don’t think people are throwing beer cans at their TV sets,” he said.
Anthony Dechotti, a limo driver in Allentown, Pa., said the Clinton and Obama campaign ads seem to run nonstop on the radio.
“It’s beenpretty constant,” Dechotti said, “and it just gives more fuel to the McCain camp because with Clinton and Obama fighting with each other, his campaign doesn’t have to do any digging.”
