GOP Opens New Front With TV Ads

Upping the ante in already expensive races, the California Republican Party has purchased broadcast television advertising to help the strongly contested congressional reelection bids of Reps. James Rogan of Glendale and Steven T. Kuykendall of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The ads, to begin airing Monday, represent the bulk of a $1.3-million television campaign by the state GOP, which has until now been limited to less costly and more focused cable television ads.

And they are a signal of how seriously Republicans are taking Rogan’s Democratic challenger in the 27th Congressional District, state Sen. Adam Schiff of Burbank, and Kuykendall’s opponent in the South Bay’s 36th, former Rep. Jane Harman of Rolling Hills. Both seats are considered important to national Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of the House of Representatives.

The state Republican Party has purchased ad time on four Los Angeles area broadcast stations for issue-oriented messages designed to boost mainly Rogan and Kuykendall.

“It’s coming down to the wire in the election,” said John Peshong, a GOP regional political director. “You want to make sure the message is heard by more people.”

The broadcast purchase has the Schiff camp reassessing its focus on cable television.

The GOP’s expenditure for the new ads is “pretty outrageous,” said Parke Skelton, a spokesman for Schiff. “It’s very expensive, and you reach 25 congressional districts. It’s like buying Florida.”

State Democratic Party leaders have spent heavily for cable television ads in Rogan’s district, which includes parts of Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and communities in northeast Los Angeles. They refused to say whether they will also make the leap to broadcast TV before the Nov. 7 election, but questioned the efficiency of broadcast ads in congressional races.

“You might as well throw money out of an airplane at 30,000 feet,” said Bob Mulholland, a campaign advisor for the California Democratic Party.

Mulholland said the Republican plan is an indication that officials realize their candidates are in deep trouble.

Because of the issues of cost and focus, it is unusual, but not unheard of, for congressional ads to make the broadcast airwaves, according to Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University.

“It’s not the norm,” she said. “That is because the conventional wisdom is it’s not the best use of political money because broadcast stations cover a lot more area than the congressional district.”

GOP sources said they expect to roughly split the advertising between Rogan and Kuykendall, although they have not ruled out helping other congressional candidates.

Rogan and Schiff say that they have already raised a combined $9.4 million, making it one of the three most expensive House races in U.S. history. Polls indicate the race remains close.

The contest has drawn money from throughout the country, in large part because of Rogan’s role as a house prosecutor in the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Both national political parties have targeted the race.

Republican officials declined to preview the ads planned for broadcast, but sources said they will be similar or identical to the issue-oriented ads that have been running for months on cable television systems in the 27th Congressional District.

Because they are paid for largely with “soft money” funds raised by the state party that are not subject to federal contribution limits, the commercials are required to stop short of directly urging votes for Rogan or against Schiff.

Harman, who used her family’s personal wealth to buy broadcast ads in 1992 when she first won the coastal Venice-to-San Pedro 36th Congressional District seat, was not surprised by the GOP decision, an aide said. Harman gave up that seat two years ago in an unsuccessful run for governor.

Harman’s ads will start soon on cable television, according to campaign consultant Roy Behr, who declined to say whether Harman will use broadcast television.

“We have known all along that the Republicans are desperately fearful of losing those two seats and will do everything to prop up their candidates,” Behr said. “This is consistent with that.”

Behr said polling done for Harman indicates that the race is a dead heat.

A political ad on prime time broadcast television can reach about 15 times the audience in the congressional district that a similar commercial will reach on cable television, Behr said.

The Times reported earlier this week that Kuykendall had begun running cable television commercials Monday for the first time in his political career.

The GOP has purchased time on KCBS-TV Channel 2, KNBC-TV Channel 4, KABC-TV Channel 7, and KCAL-TV Channel 9.