The “super PAC†supporting Mitt Romney is making its most aggressive and expensive push yet in the advertising wars with a $12 million ad buy in nine states.
The expenditure represents a significant expansion of the group's advertising campaign and will be a major boost for Mr. Romney with only two and a half weeks to go before Election Day.
The group, Restore Our Future, had been advertising only in a handful of states in recent weeks. But its latest ad buy will include almost all of the major battleground states - Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin - plus Michigan, which has been relatively quiet because President Obama is believed to have a sizable advantage there.
The money is for just six days of ads starting on Tuesday and includes some huge sums, according to a firm that tracks political advertising. Restore Our Future has reserved around $1 million in airtime for Iowa and Wisconsin, an amount that ensures its message will be on television in heavy rotation there because of their smaller-sized media markets. It has also committed $2.5 million to Ohio and $2.3 million to Florida.
Restore Our Future's ads will help Mr. Romney remain competitive on the air. Until recently, the Obama campaign had been outspending the Romney campaign and its Republican allies in several battleground states. But Republicans believe that with polls showing the race tightening, and a small but potentially pivotal slice of voters still undecided, a messaging barrage in the final days before the election could make all the difference.
Carl Forti, a senior strategist for the group, said Thursday that the ads for the latest campaign are still being worked on. “Governor Romney continues to generate excitement among voters,†he said, “and we plan to play a pivotal role down the stretch as voters make their final decisions.â€
The fact that the group was able to reserve $12 million worth of air time for just one week indicates that it has had some success capitalizing off Mr. Romney's recent rise in the polls. It ended August with just $6 million in the bank, according to its last financial disclosure.
Follow Jeremy W. Peters on Twitter at @ jwpetersNYT .
