TV Ad Coffers Boosted by Hagel Foes

Groups take out ads opposing nominee for Secretary of Defense

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2013 1:32:15 PM

TV stations are benefitting from President Obama's controversial choice of Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (Neb.) for Secretary of Defense, a choice that does not have the support of many Republicans.

According to a Sunlight Foundation analysis, groups opposing Hagel have spent $123,000 on TV ads in various markets.

Conservative group Use Your Mandate spent $47,000 in New York and Washington stations during Sunday morning public affairs shows; Americans for a Strong Defense bought $63,000 worth of ads in North Carolina and Colorado, and may have spent more given that their YouTube page has video of ads targeting six senators they want to oppose the nomination.

In addition, The American Future Fund, which spent millions to unseat the president, spent $14,000 on Fox stations on Sunday in Washington targeting Hagel's personal finances.

According to Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth online political ad tracker, which benefits from the FCC's move last year to require stations to post online political ad buys on an FCC website, the biggest beneficiary was WRAL-TV Raleigh, N.C., with a $27,400 buy; followed KCNC-TV Denver at $18,800; WRC-TV Washington with $25,000; WNBC New York with $15,000; and WTTG-TV Washington with $14,000.

Sunlight points out that the Republican Jewish Coalition and Emergency Committee for Israel have anti-Hagel videos on their homepages, but so far it has not identified any airtime buys for those videos.

Former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, a CNN analyst, has been particularly outspoken on-air about what he says is Hagel's lack of support for Israel.