Carney plans major TV blitz in August

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.comTimes Leader Staff Writer

Entering summer with more than 70 times the amount of money in the bank than his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. will spend some of that largesse on commercials, the first batch of which hits the airwaves today.

Carney, D-Dimock Township, announced Monday during a conference call with the media that his campaign has purchased ad time on WNEP, WBRE, WYOU and WOLF television stations over the next week. The cost of the commercials is approximately $60,000. That’s about 7.5 percent of the $792,891 Carney’s campaign entered July with, according to the most recent campaign report filed with the Federal Campaign Commission.

Phil Condron, president of advertising agency Condron and Company in Scranton, said the investment this early in the game is worth it because it does multiple things.

“He who gets out early sets the playing rules and sets the platforms,” said Condron, whose firm handles campaign advertising but has never had Carney as a client.

By going on air this early in the game, Condron said, it gives Carney several distinct edges and forces his opponent, former U. S. Attorney Tom Marino from Lycoming County, to either spend money responding to the ads or choose to remain silent and give his opponent an unchallenged spotlight.

“Whenever a candidate is able to form their positions early in voters’ minds ... it gives you a big advantage because you’re then top of mind and your opponent has to play catch up,” Condron said.

Carney’s spokesman Josh Drobnyk said the summer commercials are nothing unusual.

“Congressman Carney has always reached out to voters in August and this year is no different. He never takes anything for granted and looks forward to sharing his message of job creation through tax cuts for small businesses and working families and ending tax breaks for companies to send jobs overseas.”

Wilkes University political science professor Tom Baldino said traditionally an incumbent will run the first round of ads and focus on their positive traits. He said a second round of ads typically contrast their records against that of their opponent. The third round, if needed, then becomes attack ads.

King’s College political science professor David Sosar said he doesn’t think Carney will ever have to air those third round commercials because he doesn’t think Marino will be able to compete on the airwaves.

“I don’t think he will unless there’s something dramatic that changes in that race,” Sosar said. “In a Republican district if a guy can’t get money, there’s really something wrong there.”

Carney, during an unrelated press conference call on Monday, noted Marino’s low contribution total and said “if the kind of campaign he’s conducted so far is any indication of how he approaches the campaign, then I understand why people are apprehensive about giving to him.”

Though Marino’s campaign had only $11,138 in the bank on July 1, his campaign has said it now has more than five times that total and has had a strong July and so far a strong August, he does not have enough to battle Carney on the airwaves at this time.

Baldino and Sosar said that if a candidate has the money, television ads are effective.

But Baldino questioned the impact of commercials running this far away from the Nov. 2 election.

“My criticism of ads this early on is they’re really not going to be as effective as those ads that will be run in the fall,” Baldino said.