Gov: Petro (R) and Blackwell (R) Load Up for Massive TV Blitz

The Columbus Dispatch reports here that Republican gubernatorial candidates Attorney General Jim Petro (R-Rocky River) and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R-Cincinnati) have made enormous broadcast and cable television advertising buys, focused on the two weeks between April 17 and the primary on May 2. Each is reportedly spending more than $1 million, meaning it's "probably the most that’s ever been spent in a gubernatorial primary" according to the senior vice president of a political-media consulting firm.

How will this affect their bottom line? The campaign cash numbers are a little dated at this point, but at the end of 2005 Petro had $2 million on hand and Blackwell had $1.5 million. Strickland, who has been running TV ads of his own, had $2.1 million at that time.

Petro has an 11 point deficit to make up, according to the recent Columbus Dispatch poll, so look for him to pull out all the stops. I expect his ads will contain very sharp attacks on the front-runner, especially so because Blackwell's campaign against Petro has been very negative from the outset.