I remember way back during what would end up being teabagger Toomey's last campaign in 2016 here in PA (he didn't run again and that is when Fetterman ran in 2022), when he was literally running ads all that spring, through the summer, and into that fall, non-stop, on radio and TV. There were no other ads for any office during those times and I was furious. He was of course re-elected (beating the (D) candidate Katie McGinty by ~1.5%/90K votes).
The old-thinking was to wait until right before the election. But when you have the $$$, reserve air time for the fall, but start spending now.
A complaint that some of the slightly engaged or un-engaged voters have had was that suddenly the politicians "only show up just before the election", and breaking that habit might help to break the problem of low-turnout primaries and special elections that are often just as critical for those row offices up and down the ballot. This is particularly a need when you have the GOP now intent on taking away rights by changing state constitutions via referendums and scheduling those during low-turnout primaries and/or special elections.
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