Silence of the Wolves, and Their Ilk, in Swing States

WASHINGTON — In one of his last television commercials before the election, President Bush waxed eloquent and emotional on the sacrifices of the U.S. military and his zeal to defend the country. In another, wolves lurked in a forest -- symbolizing terrorists on the loose -- as a narrator denounced Sen. John F. Kerry for proposing to cut funding for spy agencies.

New data released Monday on airtime purchased for campaign advertisements show which spot Bush favored for his closing pitch.

The president spent about $53,000 one day late last week to air the uplifting pro-Bush ad called "Whatever it Takes," an independent report for The Times found. He spent about $758,000 that same day to air the anti-Kerry ad called "Wolves."

For his part, the Democratic challenger sought to tailor his final advertising to the various political rhythms of the battleground states.

Kerry had 34 different spots on the air at one point last week -- compared with Bush's nine -- and the themes in many of them matched up with a given state: Wisconsin jobs, Pennsylvania jobs, a closed Ohio factory, a New Mexico governor's testimonial, a Nevada nuclear waste dump. In each case, Kerry found a local angle to attack Bush.

With the two major parties and a plethora of outside groups also pouring money into the race, spending for the 2004 presidential ad wars crested last week and continued to set records with each passing day.

The final week's television frenzy put an exclamation point on a stunning year for political ads in which viewers in battleground states were barraged with more than 675,000 commercials.

Kerry and pro-Democratic sources spent more than $31 million on cable TV and local broadcasts in the top 100 markets for the week that ended midnight Saturday, according to the report for The Times, compiled by TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group. In all, these players spent more than $357 million since the general election campaign began March 3.

By comparison, Bush and his allies spent more than $29 million on TV last week and about $229 million for the year.

The combined spending of more than $580 million dwarfs what CMAG tracked four years ago. Presidential television ad spending in 2000 totaled about $200 million. Those totals don't include tens of millions of dollars spent on radio and newspaper ads and TV time in smaller broadcast markets.

The final ad burst showed anew the contrasting strategies of Bush and Kerry.