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.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. PJ says:

    “Senator Santorum will not hold any campaign related events on Monday so that he and Karen can remain in the hospital with their daughter Bella. The entire Santorum family is incredibly grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support.”

    There will be some outpouring from Romney on Monday.

    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.

    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.

  2. al-Ameda says:

    Seamus approves of this message

  3. DRS says:

    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?

  4. Fiona says:

    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.

  5. Fiona says:

    @DRS:

    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?

    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?