With absentee ballot season looming, Armstrong campaign makes $500k ad buy

With absentee ballots being made available starting this Friday, Republican Wil Armstrong's 6th Congressional District campaign has purchased about $500,000 worth of TV ads to run through the August 12 primary, broadcast and cable television records show.

CO-6 primary opponent Mike Coffman is also planning significant ad buys in coming weeks, his campaign said Tuesday.

With many expecting absentee balloting to rise this year given continued concern over the reliability of the state's electronic voting machines, maximizing name recognition in the weeks before August 12 is vital for the four candidates in the CO-6 GOP race.

Armstrong's buy, which starts today and is scheduled to run through August 17, includes $457,950 worth of ads on Denver-area broadcast television and $30,007 worth of advertising through Comcast cable television, records show.

Armstrong manager Jack Stansbery said, however, that that schedule may be revised depending on July fundraising and other factors.

For now, the ad buy will include only the two ads the Armstrong campaign released Monday, though Stansbery said new ads may be aired at a later date.

Coffman's campaign is currently purchasing TV ads week-to-week, said manager Dustin Zvonek. Broadcast television records didn't show the exact size of Coffman's current ad buy, but Zvonek said the campaign has purchased about $75,000 worth of TV ads during the week of July 6-12.

The Coffman campaign has also purchased $57,118.30 worth of ads on cable, Comcast records show. That cable buy starts today and ends August 3, the records showed.

Those numbers may well rise in coming days as Coffman's campaign has raised more than $300,000 for the second quarter of 2008 - most of which is designated for the primary election, his campaign said.

State Sen. Ted Harvey (R-Highlands Ranch) and state Sen. Steve Ward (R-Littleton) are also seeking the GOP nomination to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton). The GOP nominee will face Democrat Hank Eng in November.

As of Tuesday, neither Harvey nor Ward had yet purchased TV ad time, broadcast and cable TV records showed.

The Sixth Congressional District had 216,204 registered Republican voters as of April 2008 - the latest month for which the Colorado Secretary of State's office had CO-6 voter registration records.

Armstrong's name is already well-known in Republican circles, as his father is former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong.

But Stansbery said internal polling by the Armstrong campaign at the end of June showed Coffman with better name ID than Armstrong.

"I don't think it should come as a surprise that Will's name ID would be lower than Mike's," Stansbery said." He hasn't been running for office for 20 years."

Stansbery also said Bill Armstrong's name is less influential now than in the past, as many new voters have moved to CD-6 since Bill Armstrong's last U.S. Senate campaign in 1984.

"(The name) ‘Armstrong' does have some residual benefit to it, but not as much as everyone seems to think," Stansbery said.

Zvonek said the reliance on absentee balloting this year has been "a double-edged sword" for political campaigns.

"It definitely pushed everything forward, but the advantage that it gives us is between May and June with Mike going on air - we were the only campaign on air in June, giving Mike a large advantage," Zvonek said. "They already know who Mike is; they know what his message is."

Armstrong aired ads in May but not June.

Stansbery countered by saying internal campaign poll numbers showed only a 3-percent jump for Coffman over January poll numbers. About 40 percent of CD-6 voters polled remain undecided, Stansbery said.

"Everyone knows Mike, and less than half are still willing to support him despite two months of name ID," Stansbery said.