Political ad spending in Minnesota

By Catharine Richert, Minnesota Public Radio
Oct. 11, 2012

To get a better sense of how much money is being spent on campaign ads in Minnesota's hottest races, MPR News looked at all purchased and reserved ad buys in the Twin Cities market through October 5, 2012 - the end of the first week of October, and about a month away from Election Day. So far, groups and candidates plan to spend more than $13 million on ads in the Twin Cities market.

This year, the top 50 television markets are required to post information about political ad purchases on the Federal Communications Commission's website.

The numbers come with some important caveats.

First, television markets in Duluth and Rochester, where campaign ads are also running, are not required to report their buys to the FCC, so they are excluded from the analysis. Comcast, the cable market that serves the Twin Cities area, is also exempt from the reporting requirements.

Finally, ad buy information for groups working for and against two constitutional amendments on this year's ballot is incomplete. FOX9 KMSP and KARE11 are making this information public, but WCCO and KSTP are not.

*Spending by groups supporting and opposing constitutional amendments is incomplete.

Graph by Robert Boos, Minnesota Public Radio