While the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain have kept their sights trained on Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, recent ad spending indicates that "Minnewisowa" isn't their biggest battleground.
In the week ending last Saturday, the campaigns spent a little more than $3 million combined in the three states out of the $28 million they spent nationwide during that period.
Far bigger sums poured into the even bigger Midwest battleground states of Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which tracks political ad spending.
In these three states of the Upper Midwest, where recent polls have shown Obama pulling comfortably ahead of McCain, Wisconsin is the only one in which the Democrat outspent the Republican (about $1.2 million vs. almost $900,000).
Smaller sums were spent by the two campaigns in Minnesota ($608,000 by McCain vs. $121,000 by Obama) and Iowa ($227,000 vs. $172,000).
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa -- which have a combined 27 electoral votes -- have emerged as a political unit where both campaigns have recently lavished attention in the form of candidate visits.
In the past several weeks, the candidates or their running mates have visited the three states a dozen times.
McCain is headed back on Friday, when he will hold campaign stops in Lakeville and La Crosse, Wis. -- the same city where Obama most recently appeared on Oct. 1.
BOB VON STERNBERG
