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Posted on 10/03/2022 4:43:31 PM PDT by lightman
It’s going to be a red-letter week for Sen. Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign: the Republican underdog is finally launching a television advertising campaign.
Mastriano’s campaign announced Monday that its first ads of the race will go up later this week in a fundraising pitch to supporters.
The campaign did not respond to questions about the ads’ content but stated in the email that “our team is putting the final touches on them as we speak.”
A PennLive check with advertising trackers Kantar/CMAG confirmed that the Mastriano campaign has reserved $234,000 from Oct. 4 through Oct. 10, concentrated in the Pittsburgh ($127,000) and Harrisburg / Lancaster / York ($107,000) broadcast markets. No details were immediately available about its anticipated spend in the following weeks.
This is big news in a couple of ways for Mastriano, first and foremost because his campaign will finally have some kind of broadcast counterpoint to Democrat Josh Shapiro’s much-better resourced campaign, which has already spent $18.6 million on broadcast, cable and satellite commercials since the May 17 primary.
Mastriano has spent zero on broadcast ads to this point.
In Pennsylvania, that’s an unprecedented competitive imbalance for two major party candidates in an open seat race; Mastriano and Shapiro are running to succeed Gov. Tom Wolf, who is barred by the state Constitution from seeking a third consecutive term.
It also means the conservative state Senator from Franklin County - who to date has relied almost exclusively on Facebook, a select group of radio shows and podcasts and in-person rallies to drive his message - will get a new chance to try to reach voters outside that self-selected bubble in the closing weeks of the campaign.
This is especially true for Mastriano, who has so far refused to grant interviews with locals news affiliates and newspapers that still command vast audiences across Pennsylvania.
“I think anytime a campaign begins a multi-media market television effort that’s always a good day for a campaign,” said GOP campaign consultant Chris Nicholas, a longtime campaign manager for former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.
But there will still be an imbalance.
Kantar’s numbers show that the Shapiro campaign has reserved slightly more than $1 million for ads in the same time frame, meaning the Democrat will still be out-advertising Mastriano by a greater than 4:1 ratio across Pennsylvania next week.
The Shapiro spend, Kantar said, covers all six of Pennsylvania’s television markets and breaks down like this: Philadelphia, $476,000; Pittsburgh, $251,000; Harrisburg / Lancaster / York, $160,000; Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, $70,000; Johnstown / Altoona, $45,000; and Erie, $40,000.
That’s reflective of campaign finance reports filed with the state last week that showed Shapiro entering the last six weeks of the general election campaign with about $11 million in cash on hand, and Mastriano’s committee bringing about $2.6 million into the home stretch.
Mastriano’s announcement Monday came paired with a direct pitch for contributions that he said are needed to help sustain and grow his ad campaign.
“Too many people in Pennsylvania SUPPORT the policies and values this campaign is fighting for… but because they’re only heard lies about me from Josh Shapiro and the Far-Left Media, they’re not yet voting for me,” Mastriano wrote. “I’ve talked a lot in the past week about this campaign finally getting OFF the defense and getting ON the offense. That’s exactly what this ad will do: we’ll cut through all the Left’s noise and reach voters directly.”
Pittsburgh and Harrisburg are the second- and third-largest of Pennsylvania’s six television markets. Nicholas noted that campaigns often delay going on the air in the Philadelphia market, the state’s biggest, because it is more expensive.
Election Day is Nov. 8. Persons wishing to cast a ballot must be registered by Oct. 24.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
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I think he needs to follow OZ around. What he is doing seems to work. and you get free airtime reporting were you go. He is supposed to be at the columbus day parade in south philly.
He needs to talk about Shapiro defending in court sending COVID 19 patients to nursing homes. That will hit home.
That’s good.
I have given Doug hundreds of dollars in recent weeks and will double that amount during the next month.
He needs the money of us regular folks because the big people with the big money aren’t giving it to him.
I thought there is/was an associate with The Federalist Society who is/was suddenly well-endowed. Is Mastriano somehow unqualified for assistance from the same? Or maybe Mastriano eschews big money altogether.
Nothing like waiting until the 11th hour. I hope it’s hard-hitting and unrelenting.
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