Where's the immigration air war?
Immigration opponents have spent less overall but have more than kept pace on broadcast television, where a collection of groups, led by NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, have spent nearly $1.2 million. Their investments in cable ($283,000) and radio ($58,000) have been far smaller.
Roy Beck, who heads NumbersUSA, said he’s been struck at the gap between the money lined up in favor of immigration reform and the amount of cash that has actually ended up on the air. He chalked it up to reformers’ fear of stirring up a grass-roots revolt: Even some of the ads by Mark Zuckerberg-backed FWD.us boosting reform-minded senators, such as South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and Alaska Democrat Mark Begich, have glossed over the immigration issue and used other topics to burnish those politicians’ images.
“You know they’ve got almost unlimited funds so they could spend just about any amount of money they wanted to,” Beck said. “On the one hand, they’ve got unlimited funds. On the other, they’ve got a message that could potentially backfire on them.”