HOUSTON – Steve Costello is out of the gate with the first broadcast TV ad of the Houston mayoral campaign season. "Hello Costello" introduces us to his candidacy and his priorities.
"If you want to reach the quarter of million Houstonians who actually turn out and vote in city elections, the best way is on the local news," said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist.
Other candidates have already taken a different approach. Bill King was first on the air and spent $225,000 on cable TV ads and $100,000 on radio spots.
Jones said of the roughly $10 million in advertising, he believes the seven mayoral candidates will spend between now and Nov. 3, $5 million, or half, will go to broadcast TV alone.
"Advertising is pivotal, particularly in these low information elections where most of the mayoral candidates are not well known to Houstonians," Jones said.
Jones said something else that could impact the mayor's race is the fight over Houston's equal rights ordinance, which will appear on the November ballot. Opponents released a one-minute radio spot on Monday aimed at female voters.
"It's going to take some of the oxygen out of the mayoral race," Jones said. "There's only so much time, so much energy, so much space for campaigning. The mayoral election is going to lose some of that to the hero campaign."
As the fight on the airwaves ramps up, Jones said all Nov. 3 is going to do is decide is which two candidates go into the runoff in December.