RGA/Christie ran more ads than Corzine from July-September

by: Jason Springer

Fri Oct 09, 2009 at 11:00:00 AM EDT

For all the complaining about how Governor Corzine is outspending everyone with the amount of money they are spending for ads on TV, the numbers tell a different story:

In accepting matching funds, Christie faces a spending cap.
That's where the Republican Governors Association comes in. RCP asked Nielsen to pull the RGA's ad buys during the same period. The data shows that when combined with Christie's spending, the Republicans have actually been on the air with more ads than Corzine.
July: Corzine 1,908 -- Christie/RGA 1,739
August: Corzine 1,306 -- Christie/RGA 2,078
September: Corzine 1,592 -- Christie/RGA 1,402
TOTALS: Corzine 4,806 -- Christie/RGA 5,219

While Christie and the RGA have run more ads, the Corzine campaign has spent more time on the air:

An important distinction: all of the ads that the RGA has launched were 15-second spots, while Corzine's have been 30-seconds and 60-seconds long. So while they may match up in numbers, Corzine has still purchased more time on the airwaves.

But the Corzine campaign says the ad buys show that the Christie complaints don't hold water:

Still, the Corzine campaign points to the data to counter the Christie camp's assertion that the governor has bought his way back into the race.
"The Christie campaign's contention that this race is tight because of advertising overlooks the fact that the RGA has been funneling millions of dollars into New Jersey since before the primary to distort the Governor's record," said Corzine campaign spokesperson Lis Smith. "The more New Jersey voters learn about Chris Christie, the more they see that he is extremely wrong when it comes to what matters for the state."

Whatever the cause, we have a close race now. And as more polls come out, Christie's unfavorables have been the consistent factor, continuing to rise with each poll. We still have many more ads to see between now and election day from all sides

Jason Springer :: RGA/Christie ran more ads than Corzine from July-September