Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald writes that With $50 million in TV ad spending, Rick Scott-Charlie Crist race is one big marketing campaign, and 71% of this spending is from Republican Rick Scott's campaign.
During the week that ended Friday, Scott dropped an additional $8 million for current and future ad buys. That’s about a 23 percent increase for the Republican, dwarfing Democrat Charlie Crist’s ad-buy increase of 17 percent, or almost $2.5 million.
This is a tight race. Scott is ahead by about 2 percentage points — 42.8 percent to Crist’s 40.9 percent — according to a Miami Herald aggregation of nine of the most-recent public polls. Libertarian Adrian Wyllie pulls about 4.8 percentage points.
Once trailing in the polls, Scott pulled marginally ahead in the same way he won the governor’s mansion in 2010 as a once-unknown: through massive TV ad buys. His campaigns attest to the power of commercials — still the best way to reach voters in Florida. It is the size of a small nation, with 10 big media markets and one of the nation’s most diverse electorates.
This article provides a more detailed analysis of Florida's five major media markets which I found to be informative given that I'm a new Florida resident of only two months. It is somewhat discouraging to learn that Florida is more conservative in the north, as I now live in the South West which seems plenty conservative to me after spending my last 35 years in Massachusetts.
Given how much Governor Rick Scott has been outspending Charlie Crist I'm surprised and pleased to learn he has only pulled 2% ahead. I ask all Democrats from Florida, and outside of Florida, to rise to the occasion to help us out here as it would be a shame if Scott were to win reelection in this important swing state after we are now so close to victory.
This move from Massachusetts to Florida has been a real eye-opener and education for me into the power money and advertising can have in state politics. Gina and I have been coming down here over the last year looking for a new place to live and Crist had a lead of several points which Scott has whittled down with sheer spending on political ads.
What an odd experience it is to be watching TV and then suddenly be exposed to a Rick Scott political ad spreading untruths and blatant distortion as if they were widely accepted truths. Sure, this kind of thing happened in Massachusetts, and I presume still goes on, however, in Massachusetts one can usually pretty much assume the average person recognizes blatant Republican propaganda for what it is.
How unsettling to think the folks down here in Florida seem to be lapping this blatant Republican propaganda trickery up, as if they were the truth, but the polls tell the story.
Florida is still a mystery to me. It seems quite modern, and even progressive in a lot of the tourist and coastal areas we've mostly frequent, But, one can drive just five or ten miles inland and have a completely different experience. G and I drove into a diner so G could order some food and use the bathroom. While I was sitting in the car, I was looking at the preponderance of odd bumper stickers. One curious one had the Obama For America logo with the European "Verboten" slash it, with the phrase "Never again!' Except the blue parts at been change to black.
It was clearly an anti-Obama sticker as were nearly all in this parking lot, so I was trying to figure out what it meant to change the blue to black in this sticker when G came out and said "let get out of here, this place is scary. Do you notice anything odd about this place?" Then from the other bumper stickers and other posters in the window I realized that the crossed out "Never Again" OFA sticker meant, "never again shall we have a black man in the White House." Yikes. And, this was right out in public, but G said the inside was even even worse.
Whatever, ... that's an tangent to the main message that Florida seems to be sitting right on the edge of a Democratic victory in the Governor slot which would be a great step in the right direction.
Please help us out here by sending money and other assistance A.S.A.P. to Charlie Crist and other Democrats, so we can turn Florida blue. What a shame it would be to waste such promising state and let the Republicans control keep control before the upcoming 2016 elections. You know the old saying, "a state is a terrible thing to waste."
I love Florida and it is such a beautiful state. But, every time Governor Rick Scott's creepy visage shows up on TV, it weirds me out in the most unsettling way. The idea that this could keep on happening for four more years is too terrible to consider - and this is totally aside from the terrible policies Scott espouses like denying expanded Medicaid coverage to our poor and working class citizens.
Please, let's all work harder to help elect more Democrats in Florida where we really need them. And, for all of you in states like Massachusetts, who have extra Democrats just hanging around not being fully utilized, encourage them to come down here and help us out. We are right on the edge of a great success.