In battleground lite Pa, ad spending lags

Put another nail in the coffin of Pennsylvania's battleground state status this presidential year. Ad buying data from a leading political ad tracking firm (the Campaign Media Analysis Group) show spending in the state was a not-bad $4.1 million from April 10 (the day Rick Santorum dropped out) through the last week of May. But that's only half the spending next door in Ohio and head-to-head with states that have fewer big, expensive markets.

Charlie Cook looks over the data today at National Journal (emphasis added):

CMAG figures look at all broadcast and cable, national, and local television ads in each of those 210 media markets. They are analyzed by CMAG's staff and divided by the number of Electoral College votes that each state has. Nevada ranked first with $677,332 per Electoral College vote. Iowa came in second with $496,088, and Ohio was third with $467,068. In fourth place was Virginia with $331,680, followed by Colorado with $313,653. New Hampshire came in sixth with $283,342, and North Carolina came in seventh with $237,329. In eighth and ninth places, respectively, were Pennsylvania at $204,670 and Florida at $101,107. These data potentially call into question the Romney campaign's seriousness about contesting Pennsylvania and about how long Democrats plan to compete for Florida.

Graphic: National Journal/Kantar Media's CMAG