The city of Cleveland is the number 1 market for political campaign spending in this year’s election campaign. Though only the 18th largest media market in the US, Cleveland has become the top market for television advertisements, surpassing Los Angeles by $2.3 million. This increase in advertisement is breathing new life into the television industry that has recently been struggling.

Cleveland becomes the front runner for advertising with $23.8 million dollars spent thus far. Wells Fargo reports that $648 million had been spent on television nationwide with that number expected to balloon to $2.65 billion by campaign’s end.

“I think Ohio is one of a handful, maybe even two or three states where if we win here, we’re likely to win.” President Barrack Obama told Newschannel5. “I think what’s important is Ohio’s values and what’s at stake for Ohio is representative of what’s happening across the country,” he said.

Both camps are fighting hard for the state of Ohio and the Cleveland television market provides them with the opportunity to reach a third of the voters who will cast ballots this November.

“In some ways it’s a little bit like World War I trench warfare,” WEWS political analyst Tom Sutton said, “They have to keep lobbing the shells at the other side and they keep lobbing them at you. There are minor casualties when there’s a slip of the tongue or one of the ads maybe gets a little bit of a harsh play but otherwise you don’t want to let up your attacks because then the other side starts to dominate and they then start to define.”

With only 3 months left, expect spending and advertisement to increase and the race to heat up.

- Jeffrey Hammond / 98.5 WNCX