For Immediate Release
Friday, October 14, 2005
Contact Information:
Natalia Kennedy, 212 998–6736
Jesse Rutledge, Justice at Stake, 202 588–9454
Conservatives Spent Twice as Much on Early TV Ads for Roberts as for Miers
NEW YORK & WASHINGTON, DC More money was spent on first-week television advertising for the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts than for White House Counsel Harriet Miers, according to the latest analysis of television advertising data conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Justice at Stake Campaign.
Last weeks television advertising campaign (October 3–9, 2005) was dominated by Progress for America, which supports the Miers nomination. Progress for America was the only group to purchase airtime in the first week after President Bush nominated Miers on October 3. The groups two ads, which ran on national cable television, cost approximately $106,552. PFA spent more than two-and-a-half times more—$286,165—in the week following the nomination of now-Chief Justice John Roberts in July.
Despite the large war chests amassed by both sides, wait-and-see is still the order of the day, said Deborah Goldberg, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. So far, weve not seen a single dollar spent on TV to oppose the Miers nomination.
Liberal groups did not buy any ads in the first week following either nomination.
So far, the extreme uncertainty over Harriet Miers has kept her nomination battle bottled up inside the Beltway, said Bert Brandenburg, executive director of the Justice at Stake Campaign. The feverish behind the scenes infighting among conservatives has not yet spilled over into the airwaves.
More data, as well as storyboards and streaming video of all of the ads, are available online on brennancenter.org and justiceatstake.org.
About this project:
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Justice at Stake Campaign are teaming up to provide regular snapshots of the television advertising campaigns related to the confirmation of Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court. The groups regularly collaborate on analyses of interest group advertising in state Supreme Court elections. The data for the project is gathered by TNS-Media Intelligence/CMAG, which tracks advertising in the nations top 100 Designated Market Areas and on national cable television.