Romney Preparing Pennsylvania Ad Blitz
Rick Santorum’s home state is about to get a Mitt Romney ad blitz:
In an attempt to eject Rick Santorum from the presidential race by force, Mitt Romney’s campaign will unveil a nearly $2 million television ad buy on the Pennsylvania airwaves beginning on Monday.
According to sources tracking TV ad spending the buy, totaling $1.9 million, is widespread, hitting media markets from Philadelphia to Erie between April 9 and April 22 — two days before the state’s April 24 primary.
(The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Salena Zito reported that the buy could grow even larger — eventually ballooning to nearly $3 million.)
Rick Santorum has already made clear that “we have to win” Pennsylvania and Romney predicted this week that Santorum, who served the state in the House and Senate, is “obviously going to do well in Pennsylvania.” A loss in the Keystone State would be exactly the knock-out blow the Romney campaign is seeking to finally shut the door on the GOP primary.
But officials with the Santorum campaign say they do not plan to let the Romney ad buy go unanswered.
“We’ll make an ad buy, no question about that,” Santorum’s national communications director Hogan Gidley told ABC News on Saturday, noting that although the campaign has yet to purchase any airtime, he fully expects they will do so “soon.”
It’s doubtful, though, that it will be anywhere near what the Romney campaign is planning.
There will be some outpouring from Romney on Monday.
Not much support or prayers though, just the usual barrage of negative ads.
Somehow I don’t think this will be good optics for Romney, he probably should postpone it a couple of days.
Seamus approves of this message
Maybe I’ve just overdosed on chocolate bunny (be vewwy vewwy quiet – I’m hunting wabbits!) but why is Santorum supposed to be so popular in Penn? Didn’t he get his keister handed to him last time out by the largest margin of defeat ever handed to an incumbent or something?
Darn–the airwaves here have been pleasantly devoid of Republican primary (aka Romney) advertising until now. Had Santorum done the intelligent thing and withdrawn after last weeks’ results, we could have been spared the nastiness.
@DRS:
Yeah, he lost by about 18 percent in 2006. I’m hoping that he’ll lose the upcoming primary, which should pretty much end his presidential aspirations forever. If you can’t win your home state primary, what can you win?