Reply #8: New article on this Senate race in Florida:Senate rivals using TV as guide

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Aug. 02, 2004




FLORIDA SENATE RACE


Senate rivals using TV as guide
The candidates seeking to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham have come up with a political version of TV Guide to reach their targeted voters.

BY BETH REINHARD AND MARC CAPUTO

[e-mail]


If you watch Oprah or Dr. Phil, Democrat Peter Deutsch wants your vote. Republican Doug Gallagher is after fans of Sábado Gigante, the Spanish-language game show.

In Florida's U.S. Senate race, one of the most competitive and expensive in the country, candidates are carefully plotting their ads to coincide with voters' must-see TV.It's not so different from selling corn flakes, where corporations figure out who walks down the cereal aisle: Campaign strategists analyze past elections and current polls to pinpoint the two million people likely to vote in the Aug. 31 primary. Then the campaigns place ads in and around the television shows those voters like to watch.

''Television buys are an art and a science,'' said David Beattie, pollster for Democratic candidate Betty Castor. ``The science is that each television show has a group that watches it, a type of person that you can target. The art is that we don't know what percentage of people watching NYPD Blue, for example, are undecided about the election.. . . We just have to hope that our television buyer targets our advertising a little more effectively than theirs.''

Democrats know, for example, that more women than men vote in their primary elections.So the women who tune into The View and Regis & Kelly are likely to hear about Deutsch's healthcare plan. Castor makes her campaign pitch to the mostly female fans of All My Children and One Life to Live .

Primary voters also tend to be informed older folks with time to watch the news. So shows like 60 Minutes, Prime Time Live and Meet the Press are chock-full of appeals for the Democratic U.S. Senate candidates. Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who has less money than rivals Deutsch and Castor, appears to be holding off on commercials until the crucial homestretch.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9298688.htm
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Democrats really need a Democrat to retain Bob Graham's seat.