COLUMBUS, Ohio — The downpour often begins before dawn and continues past midnight. It has soaked this state virtually without letup since early March. Says local forecaster Michael W. Cash: "It will definitely get heavier."
Cash works for a television station, but is no weatherman. As vice president for sales at WCMH Channel 4 in Columbus, he handles advertising clients who include President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry. And he is tracking what promises to be one of the most intense TV advertising storms of the 2004 election.
Dozens of times each day, Cash's station -- the NBC affiliate in Columbus -- and the local CBS, Fox and ABC outlets broadcast commercials featuring Bush, Kerry or both. Some of the ads tout the agendas the candidates are promoting. But most launch attacks that seek to raise questions about the president or his challenger.
Many viewers say they already are trying to ignore the ads, but that is proving increasingly difficult. "You would have to be a very light television viewer to not see these messages," Cash said.
In Ohio and 16 other states both parties view as the most competitive in the presidential race, the ads are airing at an unprecedented rate for this stage of the campaign. Bush, Kerry and various interest groups paid for more than $36 million worth of ads in March alone. More are coming this month.
"It simply has never started earlier," said Thomas C. Griesdorn, general manager for WBNS Channel 10 in Columbus.
Much of the nation is unaware of this onslaught. For now, neither Bush nor Kerry strategists are placing ads in states where Democrats or Republicans appear to have a solid edge. So Californians, New Yorkers and Texans will have little sense of the ad campaign unless they stumble across a Bush commercial on national cable stations (outlets Kerry has yet to utilize) or turn on the local news while passing through one of the battleground states.
Plenty of people who live in the targeted states -- which include Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada -- say those who don't are the lucky ones.
A stroll down tree-lined Beaumont Road in Columbus last week found a consensus that the commercials are both unsatisfying and a nuisance.
"I do the channel-flipping thing real quick," said Terry Toon, 50, a factory employee who works an overnight shift. "TV ads do nothing to convey a message. They don't give it enough time for a thoughtful discussion."
