Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton returned to Colorado’s TV airwaves with a blast of nearly 5,000 ads during the last week of the 2016 election.
Clinton bought $1.7 million worth of ads in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction for the final week. Priorities Action USA, the super PAC supporting Clinton, returned with $1.2 million worth of ads.
Priorities originally canceled its last two weeks of advertising, and Clinton hadn’t aired ads here since late July.
Republican candidate Donald Trump increased his ad buys in the state by more than $350,000, with more than 2,200 ads worth $1.2 million slated to run in the final week of the campaign.
That’s based on an analysis of contracts filed by TV stations and Comcast Spotlight, which sells cable and satellite advertising, with the Federal Communications Commission.
Some of Clinton’s ad buys included 60-second spots, while Trump began airing a 2-minute spot over the weekend. Many of the ads feature Trump talking, though not in a favorable manner in the Clinton and Priorities ads.
Overall, Trump has spent nearly $5.2 million on ads in Colorado, while Clinton has spent $4.9 million, including $880,000 before the state caucuses.
But the $76 million in total political ad spending during the entire year lags the $105 million spent in 2014, a figure that excluded cable ads.
Here’s a look at ad spending overall in Colorado for those spending $65,000 or more:
Two congressional races continued to attract plenty of ads from candidates and from outside groups.
In the 6th Congressional District centered in Aurora, GOP Rep. Mike Coffman faces former state Senate president Morgan Carroll. In the 3rd CD in south and western Colorado, GOP Rep. Scott Tipton faces former state Sen. Gail Schwartz.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership Committee are airing ads critical of Carroll and Schwartz. The House Majority PAC and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are attacking Coffman and Tipton on the airwaves.
Meanwhile, Hispanic voters are being courted in recent days by Patriot Majority, a national group funded primarily by unions and Democratic donors. That group is spending nearly $68,000 for an ad featuring comedian George Lopez and encouraging Latinos to vote. It’s running on Spanish language stations in Denver and Colorado Springs.
