Here & Now

Primary Political Ads Mainly Biographical

Shawn Johnson:

A barrage of new political ads have been appearing on TV, radio and social media in the final weeks of the campaign. And with outside interests entering the fray in Wisconsin, the number of ads you see and hear will intensify before the November election. Multimedia journalist Marisa Wojcik spoke with UW-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden earlier this week during a live web-first interview for his take on those ads.

Marisa Wojcik:

So of the pre-primary ads that we’ve seen so far, is there anything about the collection of them that stood out to you?

Barry Burden:

Well a lot of them are still biographical, introducing themselves. There’s an ad for Mahlon Mitchell where he’s really telling people his story. We saw the Kevin Nicholson ad he’s telling his story about who he is. And I think you have to do that at this point because there’s so many Wisconsin voters who aren’t yet tuned into the campaign, don’t know who the candidates are or maybe know something about them but haven’t made a firm decision. The primary’s looming. It’s just days away and so there’s a really pressure to try to warm yourself up to voters and make a compelling case why you’re the person who should be in office. Broadcast is going to be the most bang for the buck at the end of the day. There’s still a huge swath of people who watch local television who are going to be exposed to the ads. Campaigns can’t ignore social media and digital advertising so they’re going to spend money and time on that as well. It just ends up being a multi-faceted campaign but in the end, I think if you want to be a serious candidate statewide, you’ve got to be on television and that costs money.

Marisa Wojcik:

Are we going to get a little bit of a break after the primary when it comes to ads or are we going to ramp right back up?

Barry Burden:

I think they’ll be a small break and then it has to ramp up quickly. The election’s in November, that’s just three months away. Early voting will start in mid-October. They’ll be voter registration drives in advance of that, so there isn’t a lot of time for campaigns to sit and wait. And in fact, on both sides, there are already organizations in place to help whoever the nominee is for the republicans in the senate race, for democrats in the governor’s race to have an organization and some money ready to roll, to regroup the party and aim at their opponent in the general election.

Shawn Johnson:

To watch the full interview with Professor Barry Burden, visit wpt.org.