TV advertising has gotten insanely expensive in the final weeks of the campaign.
TV pros have a term called "gross rating points" that is a measure of advertising units, and they say you need at least 1,000 gross rating points per week to get any saturation from an advertisement, and you really need 2,000 to do it right.
The cost of broadcast TV ads, in the final weeks of this hard-fought election season?
$1,000 per point.
So do the math: That's $1 million to air an ad, but really you ought to spend $2 million. Per week.
The cause: All the outside money flowing in for the four competitive House districts, all of which require TV ads in the expensive metro Twin Cities market. This has made Minnesota one of the most expensive states in the country this election season.
Those outside groups with anodyne names like the Congressional Leadership Fund and House Majority PAC don't get a discount like federal candidates receive, so they drive up rates.
This in turn has a big trickle-down effect on state level races, because state candidates also aren't eligible for a discount, so they pay market rates. Even digital platforms like the music service Pandora are sold out, a DFL operative told me last week. Unlike federal candidates, state level candidates are also burdened with spending caps because they are all taking a subsidy to help finance their campaigns.