6th Congressional race to be fought mostly on airwaves

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol news bureau
• Published: Aug 17, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Candidates in the 6th Congressional District race say their campaigns will be waged mainly on the airwaves.

The opening salvos already have begun.

Third-party groups not directly affiliated with any particular candidate began radio advertisements early in the month. The first candidate-sponsored television commercial aired last week, and in case voters aren’t tuned in, automated phone calls are also under way.

Vying for voter attention in the 6th Congressional District are U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads; state Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge; and state Rep. Michael Jackson, No Party-Baton Rouge. The three candidates will be on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

Candidates and their campaign teams say that, ideally, they would want to meet their voters in person. But in a district with more than 600,000 residents, it is not likely.

While television provides a way for candidates to gain popularity, not a lot of information is being distributed in the ads, Jackson said.

“Unfortunately, we elect leaders based on sound bytes on television,” Jackson said. 

Sales records from four Baton Rouge-based television stations show that Cazayoux and a group committed to helping Democratic congressional candidates win in November have made the most buys, evenly spacing their time from early morning talk shows through the late night news.

George Kennedy, who is Cassidy’s media consultant, and Jackson both said they would be making buys in the near future.

Cazayoux for Congress has already invested more than $36,000 to run television advertisements, the records show. Cazayoux campaign manager Katie Nee said she did not know how much the candidate would spend prior to the election and that the campaign staff is taking it a week at a time right now.

Cazayoux’s campaign spent just under $800,000 on television in the shorter spring race, from mid-February to the May election that Cazayoux won.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has bought up television spots from late September until the Nov. 4 election, a gross cost of nearly $400,000.

“This is one of those swing districts, so there’s going to be a lot of national interest in this race, which explains why some of these outside groups are going to be sticking their nose in it,” said Albert Samuels, a political science professor at Southern University.