Bush Spends $3.6M to Run Ads on Cable TV

WASHINGTON - President Bush's re-election campaign will spend at least $3.6 million to run commercials on national cable channels next month as part of the first phase of its television advertising blitz.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has bought airtime on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News Channel, Fox Sports Channel, mostly during NASCAR time slots, and has indicated to ESPN and the Golf Channel that it will run ads there as well, according to several sources outside of the campaign who are familiar with the buys.

Flush with money, Bush's campaign also has requested rates for other 50-state cable buys, including on the History Channel. About $2.1 million of the $3.6 million bought so far is for ads on the two Fox networks.

The cable ads will run for about three weeks, beginning March 4. That's when the campaign will launch its ad campaign, beginning with a positive spot about Bush focused on leadership.

The Bush-Cheney campaign declined to comment.

The campaign expects to spend a large portion of its $100 million re-election fund on ads during spring and summer, particularly in states that were close in 2000.

Advisers had wanted to wait until the race for the Democratic presidential nomination was over before launching the ads, but the Democratic primary has stretched on longer than some had expected because John Edwards still is challenging John Kerry, the front-runner.

The campaign started buying airtime this week.

It requested ad rates on broadcast stations in 17 states, but is likely to buy network airtime in 14 to 16 of them, according to a Bush-Cheney source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Of the 17 states under consideration, all were competitive in the 2000 presidential race, with the contests being decided by 6 percentage points or fewer.