Romney outspending Obama on TV in swing states

By Dick Morris - 10/11/12 10:51 AM ET

This week, Mitt Romney has turned the tables on the president and now is spending more on television advertising in the swing states.

Buoyed by a 64 percent increase in his television spending (versus only 2 percent for Obama), Romney is spending $22.4 million on ads in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada compared to $17.5 million for President Obama. In the previous week — and for several weeks before that — Obama had a spending edge. In the week of Oct. 1, Obama outspent Romney by $17.2 million to $14.8 million.

This emerging gap in ad spending might account, in part, for the widening lead Romney is posting with each passing day in most polling.

In Florida, for example, Romney is outspending Obama by $1.2 million this week while Obama spent $650,000 more last week.

The following chart compares the advertising spending on television for the week of Oct. 8 compared with the spending for the week of Oct. 1. The figures include all spending by and on behalf of the candidate, whether from his own campaign committee, the national party or an outside PAC or independent expenditure:

Florida:

Romney - $6,530,661 ($3,504,993 previous)

Obama - $5,323,353 ($4,147,140 previous)

Ohio:

Romney - $4,381,999 ($4,403,999 previous)

Obama - $3,861,100 ($4,286,664 previous)

Virginia:

Romney - $5,093,574 ($3,937,296 previous)

Obama - $4,377,565 ($4,599,713 previous)

Colorado:

Romney - $2,387,209 ($979,094 previous)

Obama - $1,628,946 ($1,710,591 previous)