Oregon Public Broadcasting

Political candidates and organizations have spent $4.5 million on advertising so far this election season -- and there are still six weeks to go until election day.

But as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, figuring out exactly who is spending what is a complex  task.

Complaints about politicians often revolve around money. And in the campaign season, a fair share of that money gets spent on television ads like these.

Ad 1: "Governor Kitzhaber says that Oregon is ungovernable. I disagree. We just need new ideas and a new direction. Chris Dudley for Governor. (Fade out.)"

Ad 2: "First this plan doesn't create a single job for those out of work today. Whereas, my plan does. And second, it's a series of very expensive tax cuts with no way to pay for them....(fade out.)"

Ad 3: "It's the middle class that needs help, not big corporations. That's why I led the fight to allow washington residents to deduct their sales tax......(fade out.)"

Election laws dictate TV stations have to let people know how much candidates are spending.

In fact, anyone can go to KOIN 6 for example, and find out that gubernatorial hopeful John Kitzhaber spent $300  on a 30 second ad during Entertainment Tonight.

FYI, Washington Senator Patty Murray spent $6,000 on a different 30 second ad -- it sits in the middle of Survivor.

With a bit of leg work a reporter can find out, for example, that at Portland's major TV stations,  Kitzhaber plans about $220,000 in ads from Labor Day weekend to the election. Of course he could order up more.

His Republican opponent, Chris Dudley has reserved $310,000 so far.

But those sums are really just the tip of the advertising iceberg - says OPB's political analyst, Bill Lunch.

Bill Lunch: "You have to count into this associated groups. So on the Republican side, you have substantial spending by business groups. And on the Democratic side, substantial spending by union groups."

But, explains Lunch, the TV stations don't have to give the public access to spending by political groups. So it's hard to know exactly how much political organizations are spending.

At least until the figures are tabulated by the state -- and those aren't made public for weeks.

Still Lunch says, the hard numbers collected from TV stations are a good indicator of how much support a candidate is enjoying.

So, how should we view the fact that up until this point Dudley is spending a $1.50 for ever $1 spent by Kitzhaber so far?

Bill Lunch: "We shouldn't be surprised if Dudley outspends Kitzhaber. If we look two years ago, Kulongoski was outspent by Ron Saxton and two years before that Kulongoski was outspent by Kevin Mannix. In these gubernatorial races in Oregon the Republicans almost always have more money. You will have noticed that Kulongoski won despite being outspent both in 2002 and in 2006."

We'll see how it works out this year on November 2nd.

In other races, Senator Ron Wyden has bought up half-a-million dollars in ads.  His Republican opponent, Jim Huffman, made his first buy last week -- a $43,000 deal starting later this month. 

In Oregon's 5th congressional district Kurt Schrader has bought about three-quarters of a million dollars of air time.

West Linn Republican Scott Bruun has said his campaign will reserve TV ad time soon.

But ad sales aren't everything.

TV station files show that the Democratic Governor's Association scheduled a $217,000 buy for Kitzhaber in late August but then pulled the ads.

The Kitzhaber campaign wouldn't say why, but The Oregonian has reported it was because he considered the ads  too negative.

The two gubernatorial candidates combined have spent more than $1.5 million. But the candidate spending the most in the Portland metro area doesn't even live in Oregon.

Senator Patty Murray has reserved almost $600,000 of TV advertising. Her campaign spokeswoman, Julie Edwards, says Murray is having to fight hard because of the national money focused on the race.

Julie Edwards: "Well I think we have already seen some independent groups come in on behalf of Mr. Rossi attacking Senator Murray. We've seen that for the last two months. They've spent well over $1 million on attacks on Senator Murray and misrepresenting her record.  And the reality is that they can do this without disclosing their donors or who's paying for these adds."

Rossi’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some TV stations will release information about ad buys of some of the larger political groups,  like The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Figures from the stations that will release that information show the Democrats have scheduled at least $1 million in ad buys in the Portland area. The Republicans are only up to $140,000, but say they may spend as much as $900,000 in support of Washington State Representative, Jaime Herrera.

She's trying to win Washington’s Third Congressional District seat,  to replace retiring Democrat, Brian Baird.

Her opponent, Democrat Denny Heck,  has only scheduled $105,000 of ads. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved $650,000 worth of ad time on his behalf. 

Of course, it's still early days for this election, and analysts expect millions to be spent.