GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum's rise in the polls against Mitt Romney has not translated into more political ad dollars for broadcasters from his suddenly resurgent campaign as of a week ago.
Santorum has been getting plenty of free (earned) media via news stories on his primary wins versus Mitt Romney, but his focus in the media spend department continues to be on the Internet, according to the most recent SEC figures (Feb. 21) aggregated by the Center For Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org.
While the Romney campaign has spent a whopping $11,779,655 million on broadcast media in the primary contest, Santorum's campaign had spent only $9,969 on broadcast media, compared to $1,137,679 on Internet advertising. Romney was sharing the political advertising love with the Internet, too, with $2,287,374 in outlays.
Romney was also spending heavily on media spending advice, paying $1,994,101 for media consultants as of Feb. 21. Santorum has paid $84,341 to media consultants.
Newt Gingrich's campaign has taken a balanced approach to its media spending, putting $1,319,553 into broadcast media and $1,297,772 Into the Internet. He has spent $272,180 on media consultants.
