Parties Spent More on 2004 Campaign Ads

WASHINGTON - Viewers who felt like someone was telling them to vote for or against George W. Bush or John Kerry every time they turned on the TV last year weren't far off: Political parties and others spent nearly $178 million more on such ads in 2004 than they did in the 2000 election.

In all, party committees, individuals and interest groups spent $192.4 million on independent ads calling for the election or defeat of the president or his Democratic rival in the last election, a Federal Election Commission analysis released Thursday shows. That compares with $14.7 million spent on such ads in 2000, and just $1.4 million in the 1996 presidential race.

The spending rose in part because of a change in how political parties are financed, FEC spokesman Bob Biersack said. Congress outlawed national party committees from raising corporate, union and unlimited donations starting with the 2003-04 election cycle.

In past elections, the Democratic and Republican parties could use such so-called soft money for "issue ads" that promoted or attacked candidates' positions on issues but didn't flat-out call for their election or defeat.

Now, the parties can spend only limited contributions from individuals. They can devote as much as they wish to ads asking people to vote for or against a candidate, as long as the spending is independent of the campaigns.

During the 2004 presidential race, the Democratic National Committee spent $120 million on such ads. The Republican National Committee spent about $18 million.

In addition, the RNC spent roughly $46 million on ads that were financed in part by the Bush campaign and included messages asking voters to support Republican candidates. The DNC spent $24 million on similar ads backing Kerry and others on the Democratic ticket. Each national committee also spent about $16 million in coordination with their presidential nominees.

The ad spending accounts for a fraction of the money poured into the presidential race, the FEC analysis found. From the primaries through the Nov. 2 election, fund raising by the 2004 presidential candidates and the committees that organized the presidential nominating conventions topped $1 billion, up 56 percent over the 2000 presidential race.

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Federal Election Commission: http://www.fec.gov