Ballot measures spur TV advertising blitz; fall campaign to break spending records, say stations, media buyers.

Last Sunday morning, KOIN-TV aired a special mixing vignettes of breast-cancer survivors with live footage of a fund-raising run for cancer research. Midway through the Race for the Cure special, tobacco companies aired a commercial panning a cigarette-tax hike on the November ballot that would pay for health care.

Sponsoring a TV show on cancer may seem an odd move for tobacco companies. But cigarette-makers have lots of money to spend on Portland television audiences these days, and they're not alone.

Twenty-three ballot measures qualified for the November ballot, and the networks' fall TV lineups will be clogged with campaign ads.

"The onslaught really hits television soon," said Pat McCormick, a Portland media specialist for ballot-measure campaigns. "Television viewers are going to be assaulted by political issues and political candidates like they've never seen on television before."

Cigarette-tax opponents have already pledged to buy 371 spots on just three of Portland's TV stations, at a cost of $397,575. Buyers for all the ballot measures have reserved 2,646 spots on the three stations. The cost: $1.8 million and rising.

 
Tobacco Tax 
(Measure 44) 
TV Ads(*) 
 
                                (Pro)                 (Con) 
                    No. of spots/Cost     No. of spots/Cost 
 
KATU                       51/$25,700          108/$192,600 
KOIN                       45/$19,375          194/$164,425 
KPTV                       72/$25,855            69/$40,550 
KGW                                NA                    NA 
 
* Ads placed as of 9/10 
 
Source: TV station political ad books 

"It's going to be a record year, there's no question about that," said Lynn Thorsen, a partner at Smith & Thorsen, a Portland ad-placement firm. "Come the last week of the election, people are going to go, 'Oh, God, not another …