With the election closing in on its final days, little-known legislative candidates for both parties — and more significantly, deep-pocketed outside groups — are rushing the cable airwaves, spending millions of dollars on airtime as they battle to secure control of the State Capitol.

For every shiny, pricey Dick's Sporting Goods ad during a Minnesota Vikings game on one of the TV networks, there's a goofy Dick Enrico's 2nd Wind Exercise spot playing on cable. By the same token, just as certain political ads framed their campaigns — think Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" — legislative candidates also want in on the action, shelling out campaign cash for 30 seconds of face time on "Househunters" or "The O'Reilly Factor."

"It's been ramping up steadily, but the next two weeks will be extremely busy," said Jill Hornbacher, a spokeswoman for Comcast.

The company said campaigns and outside groups spent more than $4.5 million with Comcast on legislative races in 2014 and expects a 10 to 20 percent increase this year, which would be an even greater increase over the most recent presidential year of 2012. Money on other cable systems will push the total still higher.

Because there is no statewide race this year, business groups, labor unions and wealthy individuals are focused on the Legislature, showering money on about 2 dozen House and Senate districts — most of them in the suburbs — that will determine who controls the Capitol.

The DFL wants to help Gov. Mark Dayton push ahead with universal prekindergarten, a major transportation package backed by a gas tax increase and new employee benefits such as paid family leave.

Republicans want to retain the House and potentially take the Senate so they can shrink the growth of government and go into the 2018 governor's race with momentum.

Unlike in presidential or even congressional races, legislative candidates cannot rely on media exposure to get their names out to voters, who often don't know who their legislators are, let alone the challengers. That's why a 2014 legislative race in Willmar, for example, featured more than 75 pieces of mail trying to sway voters.

But campaign operatives say that approach begins to deliver diminishing returns, when voters recognize the campaign fliers and place them from the mailbox directly to the trash barrel.

"For a [legislative] district, cable is the best way to move a broad message," said John Rouleau, executive director of the GOP-leaning Minnesota Jobs Coalition.

Susie Merthan, spokeswoman for the DFL-leaning Alliance for a Better Minnesota, agreed: "There are only so many ways to reach people. And for some people, this is the only way to reach them," she said.

Rouleau said it costs about $2,000 to $7,000 to make the ads. Thirty seconds of cable time can cost anywhere from just a few dollars to more than $1,000 for such premium sporting events as a Vikings football game.

Campaign operatives also like "The Walking Dead," which portrays life in the weeks and months following a zombie apocalypse.

The most valuable times, they say, are when people are watching live TV and can't skip the ads like they do when they're watching a program they've saved with a digital video recording device like TiVo.

Cable offers two advantages over broadcast TV: It's less expensive and it allows for better targeting.

Cable can hit just a few ZIP codes, which helps campaigns target House and Senate districts. And, if you want to reach a certain group of voters, you can buy time on "Property Brothers" for one demographic and a sporting event for another.

Despite this targeting, there's considerable doubt about whether TV ads even work.

Fewer people are watching regular TV — as opposed to using streaming services such as Netflix that have no ads. And, when they do watch, they have become increasingly dismissive toward advertising, and political advertising in particular.

"To the extent [TV ads] have an impact, it's a short-term impact," said David Karpf of George Washington University, echoing the work of such political scientists as John Sides and Lynn Vavreck, who have studied the effect of TV ads and find no long-term correlation between political ads and movement in the polls.

The uncertainty of cable ad effectiveness in legislative races is even greater, because "lower-level races are often affected by tidal forces at the national level," Karpf said.

In other words, many legislative districts will be buffeted by national dynamics, giving local candidates little control over their own electoral destiny.

Still, a handful of House and Senate races could be decided by a few dozen votes, which in turn will determine the movement of billions of dollars of taxing and spending.

Operatives describe the electoral version of an arms race: If the other guy spends, his message must be countered.

When the Alliance for Minnesota went up with ads early to try to communicate a positive message of a DFL-controlled Legislature, GOP-oriented groups like the Jobs Coalition matched it. "We learned last time the DFL beat us to the punch, so we made a point to get started earlier," Rouleau said.

J. Patrick Coolican • 651-925-5042