This week saw the launch of Mike Beebe’s paid television advertising campaign. The Democratic nominee for Governor reported a $1.06 million ad buy in his July expenditure report, made public on August 15th. Beebe’s ads actually began running statewide on Monday, August 14th. Presently, he has scheduled a two-week advertising flight that will conclude at the end of this month, although there’s a good chance that Beebe will add significantly to that buy for the month of September.

So when will his challenger, Republican Asa Hutchinson, launch his media blitz? Campaign officials decline to give an exact date, understandable from a tactical perspective, but we now know that it will be no later than Monday, October 16th, the week before early voting begins.

A search of public records on file with broadcast television stations around the state shows that this month Hutchinson has bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of broadcast media, in addition to the $70,000 media purchase disclosed in his July campaign report. On those broadcast media schedules, Hutchinson has banked substantial air time from October 16th through Election Day on November 7th.

This month’s media buy will put a dent in Hutchinson’s $1.16 million reported cash balance at the end of July. A large portion of his media buy is not reflected in that July campaign report.

Beebe is presumably in a richer cash position. He had a $1.28 million cash balance at the end of July after spending $1.06 million on a major media buy.

Where has Beebe spent his money? In addition to his current two-week ad flight, Beebe has also made a major media purchase for the final three weeks of the campaign. August expenditures won’t be fully reported by either candidate until September 15th when the next round of disclosure documents are filed with the Secretary of State.

As is usually the case, candidates buy the final weeks of their campaign advertising first and begin working backwards to fill in the dates as more cash comes into the coffers. Expect to see Asa on the airwaves before October 16th as he applies incoming contributions to beef up his advertising schedule. And, don’t be surprised if Beebe’s war chest allows him to remain on the airwaves between now and Election Day.

Talk Business will have a more detailed report on this subject next week.