In the two weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election, Dean Corren has reported spending more money on media advertising than during the rest of his campaign for lieutenant governor combined.
Corren, a Progressive who also has the Democratic nomination, has spent $73,721 since Oct. 20 on media advertising, nearly half of which is for television ads. The election is Nov. 4.
“It’s understood that people focus on these races pretty late on,” Corren said Friday.
Corren spent $61,000 between the August primary and Oct. 19, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State. Those purchases included palm cards, yard signs and ads on the sides of CCTA buses in Chittenden County.
Corren’s expenditures in the past two weeks focused primarily on television advertisements.
His campaign in the past two weeks spent $38,900 on TV ads, $8,000 on radio, $5,900 on newspaper and $3,700 on online ads. The campaign also spent $16,900 on other ad-related expenses including graphic design, animation and $4,000 to campaign manager Chris Pearson, records show.
Corren has a fixed campaign budget of $200,000 because he chose to take public financing for the campaign. $50,000 of that was designated for the primary, and $150,000 for the general election.
Corren has six television spots, his campaign said. The stations that gained the most from Corren’s campaign were WFFF ($14,399) and WCAX ($13,343) according to mass media spending reports.
Incumbent Republican Phil Scott’s campaign has not filed any mass media reports since the last campaign finance reporting deadline, Oct. 15.
Scott’s campaign has reported spending $150,000 on media advertising via the firm Hen House Media, a South Burlington company registered to Bryan Agran and Johnny Mendez, according to secretary of state records. Of that amount, he spent $54,284 on television and $20,570 on radio ads, and $32,839 on print materials.