Interest Groups Adopt Different Ad Strategies over Alito Nomination

Conservative and liberal interest groups fighting a battle over the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court have adopted starkly different media buying strategies, according to new data released today by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Justice at Stake Campaign. The data shows the groups combining to spend slightly over $2.5 million for and against Alito since his nomination on Oct. 31, 2005. While nearly double the amount spent for and against Chief Justice John Roberts, the figure is nonetheless much lower than many had predicted.

Conservative backers spent most of their advertising budgets to buy airtime on cable networks such as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC to promote Alito’s credentials and to defend him from his liberal critics. They spent virtually no money targeting individual senators with television ads, though the Family Research Council announced this week that it is launching a late round of radio ads directed at Democratic senators from “red” states.

Opponents of Alito also invested in national cable advertising, particularly during the week of his hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But they also spent nearly a third of budgets targeting states with senators who have been identified as swing voters on the Alito nomination. They also spent heavily on TV ads in Maine and Rhode Island, home to three moderate Republican senators. The week of the hearings, they also ran ads in Ohio in an effort to sway Republican Senator Mike DeWine.

Alito’s opponents also targeted Arkansas and Colorado, home to a number of conservative Democratic senators, in an effort to shore up Democratic “no” votes on Alito.

The data for the project was gathered by TNS-Media Intelligence/CMAG, and is complete through Jan. 22, which includes the full week of the confirmation hearings.