It’s a great headline, but it’s one of many that overstates what third party groups can do in the last stretch of this campaign. So: Americans for Prosperity, which is chaired (and funded to an unknown extent) by David Koch, has announced $3 million in new ads across two states that lean toward Barack Obama. This is one of the ads.
What the hype doesn’t tell you is that AFP has been running this very ad in Pennsylvania for months – since August. This ad, like the documentary “The Hope and the Change,” is a focus-grouped look at the Real People who supported Barack Obama before, but just can’t do it anymore. And the American Future Fund is going up with a similar ad, full of women who care about jobs and doin’ things, not wedge issues.
All told, conservative groups and Republican campaigns will spend $8.8 million on Pennsylvania ads – five times as much as Democrats. But the Democratic disavantage isn’t 5-1. Candidates get cheaper airtime than third party groups do.
