Air GOP Fills New Hampshire Media

When in New England, do like the New Englanders. So Phil Gramm, the drawling senator from the great state of Texas, gets a little help when he comes to town in his quest for votes.

“Phil is from Texas and he speaks a little funny. So I’m his New Hampshire interpreter,” said Yankee-twanging state Sen. Bob Smith in a radio ad for the Republican presidential candidate. “He may not talk like us, but he sure thinks like us.”

Gramm’s is the funniest salvo to hit the airwaves so far in this chilly state that every four years moves to the center of the national political stage with its first-in-the-nation primary. New Hampshire’s broadcast stations--financially the biggest winners during primary season--are already crowded with pleas from most of the major Republican presidential candidates.

“Political interest in New Hampshire you can measure with a thermometer,” said James C. Courtovich, a senior Gramm advisor. “When it hits 32 degrees, people start paying attention.”

And the candidates have more than obliged the Granite State’s newly alert voters.

Switch on a radio or television nearly any time of the day or night and you’ll find Sen. Bob Dole claiming credit for producing a balanced federal budget (a mission not yet accomplished), conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan railing against U.S. intervention in Bosnia, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander preaching personal responsibility, Gramm touting a balanced budget, and publisher Malcolm S. (Steve) Forbes Jr. talking more than all the rest.

After a while, everything on Manchester television station WMUR sounds like a political slogan. Forbes: Scrap the flat tax. Gramm: common sense, uncommon courage. Honda Barn of Stratham: no games, no bull.

Even though Courtovich pegs Forbes’ advertising spending at 50% to 75% more than Gramm’s, the senator has been no slouch. In addition to his radio spot, Gramm purchased air time for 66 ads on WMUR for a one-week period that ended Dec. 4, for a grand total of $21,000 spent at that station alone.

On Dec. 5, the day Gramm filed for the New Hampshire primary, he and Forbes at times seemed like Siamese twins: 5:30 p.m. Forbes, 5:39 Gramm, 5:55 Forbes, 5:59 Gramm, capped with a small dose of Alexander at 6:24. Six minutes later it started up again: Forbes, Gramm, Forbes, Gramm.

Dole, the front-runner in the GOP race, is the latest to begin his advertising. Given Dole’s name recognition in the state from previous presidential runs--and the almost daily news coverage his responsibilities in Congress bring him--his campaign decided to hold its ad fire until last week.

Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar is between ad campaigns. And with a single, red-plaid television ad that runs largely in the wee hours, Alexander has been spending between $8,000 and $12,000 each week on WMUR.

“I worry about [Forbes’ prodigious ad spending] and then I remember John Connally,” said Tom Rath, senior Alexander advisor. In 1980, the former Texas governor blanketed Iowa with expensive advertising but fared dismally in the GOP caucuses.