Nevadans welcome end of political ads

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.

Las Vegas residents might be relaxing now to the sweet sound of car dealership commercials. Better that than political ads.

For the past few months, the Southern Nevada market was one of the nation's hottest for political advertisements. Some television executives estimate that political groups and candidates spent more than $25 million in the area.

The Sun found that more than $7.5 million was spent on just the federal candidates and the issues in their campaigns in the month of October among Las Vegas' four major network channels and Cox Communications.

Joanne Nasby, national sales manager for KVBC Channel 3, said her station ran so many ads that it received complaints from viewers sick of the ads or confused by back-to-back commercials that weren't clear on who sponsored them.

"People get frustrated," she said. "I know my own parents who are elderly, they just got to the point where they didn't want to watch TV anymore."

In all, President Bush and the Republican National Committee were outspent almost two-fold in Southern Nevada by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and the Democratic National Committee.

Bush and the RNC spent at least $1.37 million in October, while Kerry and the DNC spent at least $2.53 million.

When combined with the at least $402,130 that Democratic-leaning MoveOn.org spent in October on Kerry's behalf, Democratic forces spent more than $2.9 million in October ads. There were thousands more spent by other groups, such as the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Las Vegas ranked 11th among the nation's media markets in the number of presidential spots aired in the first few weeks of October, according to a study by Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.

Reno came in third, behind first-ranked Miami and second-ranked Albuquerque.

And that doesn't count the huge stream of commercials for County Commission candidates and the slew of state ballot initiatives.

"It's the biggest political season I think the Las Vegas market has ever seen," said Mike Walters, general sales manager at KLAS Channel 8.

About one-third of the ads placed in the Las Vegas market came from presidential candidates, another third from issue campaigns and the rest on state and local campaigns such as the active state Supreme Court races, said Jill Saarela, general sales manager at Fox 5 KVVU-TV.

But it wasn't all good news for local stations, which under federal law must treat federal candidates as they would their best advertisers -- giving them the lowest unit rate and access to air time, even if it means they must bump better-paying advertisers.

"Many clients are concerned about how the political demand is impacting their own advertising," Walters said a few days before the Nov. 2 election.

Several federal laws open the airwaves to political advertisers.

Qualified federal candidates get the right to purchase air time from radio and TV stations through the Reasonable Access Rule. Stations are not compelled to broadcast ads regarding local and state offices.

And stations that sell air time to one federal candidate must sell air time to his or her competitors through the Equal Opportunity Rule.

In 2002 the government strengthened rules saying that candidates couldn't score prime air prices when running attack ads against their opponent unless they tagged their names onto the ads. That's the origin of the "I approve this message" line.

Still, stations manage to charge candidates more by selling time that is guaranteed not to be preempted, said Meredith McGehee, president of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, which advocates for cheaper air time for candidates.

And some stations jack up their prices in the months before an election, she said.

"They're living by the letter of the law, not the spirit," she said.

While television stations give their best rates to federal candidates, they can charge steeper sums to the other candidates, and Fox 5 saw an opportunity this year, Saarela said.

Her station flew representatives to Washington, D.C., earlier this year to convince media buyers that Fox 5, with its snappy news format and lineup of shows, was the best way to reach younger, undecided voters.

Older, more entrenched voters tend to watch stations such as NBC and CBS, she argues.

"Those (younger, undecided voters) are the people you can persuade," she said "You're not going to persuade an 80-year-old woman who is a die-hard Republican."

The pitch apparently paid off. In October, the peak month for political advertisements, Fox 5 pulled in at least $1.29 million in ads just from the major presidential, congressional and party campaigns.

Of the 64 channels on Cox Communications that accept advertising, only 26 broadcast political ads this season, said Steve Schorr, vice president of public and government affairs for Cox Communications.

Cox Communications also aired more than $1 million in political ads relating to federal races in October.

Some of the stations that aired ads were obvious political hotspots such as CNN, Headline News, Fox News and MSNBC. Ad-free channels included the Family channels, History channel and Discovery channel, Schorr said.

Schorr said he heard estimates that about $18 million would be spent this year on television political advertisements in Las Vegas, a lower estimate than some but still a record for the market.

He and other ad executives predicted that Nevadans could see more of these nonstop ad blitzes in coming presidential years, largely because the state gained an additional electoral vote and is closely divided among Republicans and Democrats.

"It's clear how important this state has become," Schorr said.