The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
During Sunday’s Seahawks game on KIRO (Channel 7, Seattle), a 30-second ad was scheduled to run bashing the Republican candidate for governor, Dave Reichert.
Because so many local viewers tune in to the Seahawks, broadcasting this one short attack ad costs $80,000, according to a KIRO contract agreement with a super PAC called Evergreen Values.
It’ll be the most expensive political ad of the local election season, records show. But what’s notable about it is that this one 30-second ad, paid for by Democrats, has more ad value than Republicans currently are scheduled to run in defense of Reichert on KIRO for the entire rest of the campaign.
It’s a stark example of how this is shaping up to be one of the most lopsided campaigns in memory, at least for one waged over an open seat for a major office such as governor. Records filed by TV stations with federal regulators show the GOP campaigns are being massively outgunned in political ad spending by Democrats.
Take this one station, KIRO. Evergreen Values, an arm of the Democratic Governors Association, has booked more than $1.5 million worth of airtime at the station. That’s enough to buy about 1,100 30-second ad slots across September and October.
The group’s two ads released so far both assail Reichert for his anti-abortion voting record when he was in Congress.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Bob Ferguson, has separately booked nearly 800 ad slots on KIRO, costing roughly $900,000. Some of his ads promote his own plans should he win the office, while others attack Reichert.
That’s all pretty normal. Politics ain’t beanbag, as they say. What’s different is that, to an unusual degree, the Republicans aren’t responding.
You may be saying: So what? Big-media advertising isn’t everything in politics, especially as viewing habits have fractured. Candidates sometimes get wildly outspent and still win. Plus we’re a blue state, so of course Democrats are going to have an edge.
All true. But what’s happening is not typical. The last time we had an open seat for governor, national GOP groups dropped $9.3 million trying to elect then-state Attorney General Rob McKenna. Unions and liberal groups countered with similar amounts for Democrat Jay Inslee. The point being: It was more of a fair fight. This time, one side isn’t even getting in the ring.
There are a few things to say about this. The first is that this is mostly self-inflicted by Republicans.
The Trumpification of the party has all but disintegrated it around here. A case study is how the party earlier this year endorsed a recalled school board member and MAGA zealot over the nine-times-elected Reichert. They did so after being warned from within that it would “burn down the house.”
As Reichert said then: “The party’s been taken hostage.”
Now, the GOP is broadcasting ads at 4 a.m. while the Democrats are on during the Seahawks — that’s what a hostage situation in politics looks like.
The other thing is that even though Republicans brought this on themselves, it’s still no way to run a democracy. We talk all the time about the perils of inequality. Well 50 to 1 is off-the-charts inequitable.
The group paying for most of that $80,000 football game ad, the Democratic Governors Association, is a dark-money super PAC — meaning it can take donations of unlimited size, including from corporations, and isn’t regulated by the Federal Election Commission. Does anybody care about sunlight in politics anymore, or the potentially corrupting influence of big money?
There probably are ways, such as public financing schemes, to even up the playing field at least a bit. But after Citizens United and a few other sweeping U.S. Supreme Court decisions, few topics have gone out of fashion more than campaign finance reform.
Instead, we’ve gone free market with our democracy. It has created a contradiction. Campaigns are supposed to be conversations, battles of ideas. Can they be, with only one side talking?
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