If you've been anywhere near a television recently, you've probably seen a flood of political ads.
Television viewers in Northern Virginia have been hit with $16 million worth of political ads, according to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, and viewers in Hampton Roads are swimming in $10 million worth of commercials.
Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett says Northern Virginia might be a larger dollar amount, but Hampton Roads is getting way more advertising.
"The Second Congressional District, every cycle, is always seen as an incredibly appealing district for parties to target if they think that a race could be even nominally competitive," Tribbett explains. "And the reason is one, the media market is cheap, but two, the entire congressional district is covered in that one media market."
Most of the spending is directly from the candidates and their campaigns, although a significant amount of spending is from outside groups – ads that do not include the voice of a candidate saying they “approve of this message.”
"An ad that has that disclaimer from a candidate is booked at a lower rate than an ad you see from a PAC," says Jeff Ryer, spokesman for the Trump campaign in Virginia. "Which is why a lot of times if you look ad for ad versus dollar for dollar, the PACs have to go through a great deal more money than the campaigns do in order to get the same number of ads."
The good news for many viewers is that the season of intense wall-to-wall political ads will come to an end just as soon as the polls close on Tuesday.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
