General election ad spending tops $50 million: report

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates have spent some $50 million and aired more than 100,000 TV ads since the start of the general election campaign in early June, far outpacing the rate of the 2004 campaign, a report showed on Wednesday.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama spent $27 million between June 4 and July 26, while Republican candidate John McCain spent just over $21 million, the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which monitors political ad spending, said in its report.

The Republican National Committee aired another 6,005 ads during the same time frame, spending $3.6 million, while the Democratic National Committee did not air any presidential election ads, the ad project said.

By comparison, it said, the presidential candidates in 2004 had aired only 77,000 advertisements during the June-to-July period.

Obama aired the largest number of ads -- 55,312 -- nearly 9,000 more than McCain, who aired 46,453. When the RNC ads are added to McCain's tally, Obama's advertising lead drops to 2,744 ads.

"Obama's fundraising totals allow his campaign to purchase more ads, but to this point we have yet to see that advantage translate to a massive advantage in paid media," ad project director Ken Goldstein said.

More than 90 percent of the aids aired by Obama are positive in nature and do not mention McCain, the ad project said. In contrast, about a third of McCain's ads are negative, contrasting the two presidential candidates.

"This campaign is about Barack Obama, not John McCain," Goldstein said, with McCain needing to raise questions about his rival's credibility as a commander in chief and Obama trying to reassure people about his readiness to lead.

McCain's advertising effort is focused on four key battlegrounds states -- Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- where he is advertising more heavily than Obama, the ad project said.

So far the two sides have spent $10.3 million in Pennsylvania, nearly $6.4 million in Ohio, $6 million in Michigan and $3 million in Wisconsin.

While Obama is advertising heavily in the same four battleground states as McCain, he also is chasing votes in states where Democrats have not fared as well as Republicans in recent elections.

He spent more than $5 million in Florida, the state that gave George W. Bush the presidency in 2000, while McCain did not air a single ad there between June 3 and July 27, the ad project said.

Obama also is alone in advertising in Republican-leaning states like Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Montana and Arkansas, hoping to pull them into the Democratic orbit in the November 4 general election.

(Editing by Eric Beech)