Ten days ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced an initial $35 million ad buy in 31 House districts nationwide -- but none in Illinois. Today that changed, as the DCCC purchased $18 million worth of additional airtime, including $4 million spread over three congressional districts in the Prairie State. Here's the breakdown:
IL-10: $1.4 million (2,300 points)
IL-11: $1.6 million (4,600 points, multiple markets)
IL-14: $1.02 million (2,400 points, multiple markets)
(As Chris Cilliza explains: " An ad buy of 1,000 points means the average viewer will see the ad 10 times during a given week.")
The DCCC is clearly flexing its fundraising muscles at the moment -- they ended May with $46.5 million more cash-on-hand than their GOP counterpart. And that's great news for the three Democratic candidates in these districts: Rep. Bill Foster, Dan Seals, and Debbie Halvorson.
UPDATED: Reader TB asked me to clarify a few things about how these ad buys work. First of all, the DCCC has reserved this amount of advertising, but hasn't necessarily spent a dime yet. Depending on what happens as Election Day nears, they can increase these amounts or not spend as much as they reserved.
Second, the IL-11 and IL-14 buys were spread over multiple markets, so the point totals are actually going to be smaller in each individual market.
Finally, the buys are spread over several weeks -- not just one, as the explanation of the point system suggests.
