Every month the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics publishes a breakdown of the number of registered voters within our borders and their party affiliations, if any. As of September 30, 2012 those figures are as follows for the District’s 472,390 voters:
- Donkeys: 254,678 (75.07%)
- Indies: 81,595 (17.27%)
- Elephants: 30,483 (6.45%)
- Mixed Greens: 4,225 (.89%)
- Outliers: 1,429 (.30%)
One might think that with such an overwhelming preponderance of Democrats, the District might be spared the onslaught of political advertisements choking the airwaves in the run-up to Election Day. However, across the river from the District lies the battleground state of Virginia. According to Nielsen, there are an estimated 2,360,180 TV households in the metropolitan Washington area, making it the 8th largest broadcast media market nationwide (up from 9th place in 2011 and larger than the Houston and Atlanta markets).
I have seen estimates predicting that expenditures on campaign advertising will surpass one billion dollars in this election year. The cold comfort for the District is that Associated Press/The Washington Post reported that $150 million of the projected total has already been spent in Florida.