Airwaves to Explode With Last-Minute Political Ads

It’s going to be like the grand finale of a Fourth of July fireworks display, with the handlers holding back nothing, firing into the air every last exploding rocket and even some duds.

In this case, it will be political consultants emptying their rhetorical reserves and their campaign treasuries by filling the airwaves with television commercials just before Tuesday’s primary election.

“This weekend will be wild,” said William Carrick, campaign consultant for Dianne Feinstein, front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. “One thing everybody is scrambling to buy this weekend are NBA (playoff) games.” In Los Angeles they sell for $9,000 for 30 seconds.

Barbara Johnson, campaign chairwoman for underdog John K. Van de Kamp, reported becoming so encouraged by a late poll that she went out and bought an additional $200,000 worth of TV time for the weekend. Thinking ahead, she long ago had sewed up ad time for all Los Angeles Lakers playoff games--but the Lakers were eliminated early.

“We’re done,” she sighed, “but I wish we had another $500,000.”

Even the political pros who speak their own language refer to all these TV ads as “clutter,” as in: “It’s harder to move your numbers up in the last week when there’s a lot of political clutter. But you can’t afford not to be on (TV). If you’re down to the last week, you’d better be competitive with your opponent,” said consultant Sal Russo.

How effective is a last-gasp TV blitz? “It works,” said veteran consultant Stuart K. Spencer. But he added: “Every election is different. A lot of people haven’t decided this time and they have two choices: They can decide how to vote or they can decide not to vote. If the TV media is too overwhelming, they may say ‘to hell with it’ and not vote.”

But the reigning thesis is that many voters are just focusing on the fact that there is an election Tuesday. So the campaigns will be bombarding them over the airwaves with commercials--and the TV stations often will be stacking the ads three, four, five on top of each other.

“Isn’t it great!” said David Bienstock, a Los Angeles media strategist who basically makes his living off placing commercials.

Bienstock and others noted that the most sought-after TV time for campaign commercials are slots around news shows or interview programs such as “Meet the Press.”

“People who watch news are more likely to be voters. They’re information-oriented,” said Carrick.

“But what happens is that you get sort of bracketed. The stations run three to five (political) commercials at a time. In that kind of environment, it gets harder and harder to differentiate between candidates and propositions and insurance commissioner.”

“But we don’t have any options,” Carrick lamented. “One of the problems is that stations want the money, but they don’t want to alienate their normal commercial customers. The car dealer in Cerritos doesn’t want to be sandwiched between John Garamendi and Bill Press (two candidates for insurance commissioner).”

Time costs vary, Carrick noted. Thirty-second spots for the 5-6 p.m. news shows cost from $1,500 to $4,000 in Los Angeles. “Then you start getting into the high-rise district,” he said, “and might end up paying $35,000 for 30 seconds in prime time. In San Francisco, it could be $20,000.”

In the San Francisco and Sacramento areas, according to consultant Russo, one of the best political buys is Oakland Athletics baseball. “You’d think some big dummy drinking a beer is not going to be very interested in politics, but the numbers show that they tend to be voters,” he said.

None of the campaigns like to talk about how much money they are spending on TV commercials. That could tip off an opponent to their strategy. But the gubernatorial candidates, between them, clearly are pumping out $3 million to $4 million for TV ads in the final four weeks of the contest.

Carrick figured that the average TV viewer in California will have four opportunities to see a Feinstein ad this weekend. In advertising jargon, that means the campaign bought “400 points.” What viewers will see are two “negative” ads questioning Van de Kamp’s record as state attorney general and Los Angeles County district attorney, especially his handling of the Hillside Strangler murder case.

And if viewers don’t blink, they might also catch a Van de Kamp “negative” ad touting himself as “the real Democrat” and featuring consumer advocate Ralph Nader calling Feinstein “a Republican in Democratic clothing.”

Veteran consultant Spencer, who handles Republican campaigns, said, “The Nader ad may be a sleeper.” His past research has shown that Nader’s is the “single biggest name endorsement” in California politics, Spencer said.

Meanwhile, the TV set this weekend will be offering a smorgasbord of political commercials--for statewide and local offices and big ballot propositions, and seemingly featuring more actors than politicians. And on top of battling each other for attention, the campaigns will be competing with the superpower summit in Washington.

“No one is tuned into California politics with the Bush-Gorbachev summit,” complained Eric Rose, who is coordinating the lieutenant governor campaign of Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach). “All the attention is focused on international relations . . . (So) we think our Sunday and Monday ads will play a key role in the outcome.”

Not to worry, said media strategist Bienstock: “It’s not as if the summit or even the Gorbachev visit (to California) is going to keep you away from the television.”