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The mayoral campaign of Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-East Portland) has reduced its television advertising buys by $50,000 with three weeks left until election day, the campaign tells WW.
That reduction is a quarter of the $199,562 worth of TV time the campaign purchased on Oct. 1, the day before WW broke the story that Smith was charged with misdemeanor assault for hitting a woman in the face in 1993.
Mark Bendinelli, the political specialist for Comcast Cable, confirms that the Smith campaign placed a request this morning to reduce its TV buys.
Smith campaign manager Henry Kraemer says the campaign is still deciding how to reallocate the money.
"Grassroots field energy and reaching out to the voters who aren't reached by traditional television advertising is one of the ways that worked for us in the primary," Kraemer says, "and we're working on doubling down on that in the general."
As more revelations about the 1993 assault emerged in the past two weeks, Smith's campaign funding has dried up.
In the month of September, he was averaging $3,500 in donations a day. He's raised only $9,300 since Oct. 2—an average of $930 a day.
WWeek 2015