TNS finds the political hot spots

The crystal ball gazers over at TNS Media Intelligence see between 2.5B-3B in political spending in 2008, on top of 700M spent this year in the run-up to actual voting. It also took a look at where it thinks a lot of the cash will be directed. Holding the early primaries catapult Iowa and New Hampshire to the top of the list. Both will likely be battlegrounds in the general election, and both have competitive House races, plus Democrats have painted a big target on Sen. John Sununu (R-NH). Battleground states Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Louisiana all figure to attract national cash during the general election, and CO, ME, MN and LA also have hot Senate races. California also made the list because of its propensity for hard-fought ballot initiative battles.

Other states predicted to generate political dollars include Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

High demand is predicted to spread the wealth. Although television will benefit from the bulk of campaign advertising budgets, TNS expects "the need for more ad inventory in several battleground states." Because of this, "radio and newspapers should also see significant increases in political ad dollars in a number of states."

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