In case voters in the proposed city of St. George haven’t finished poring over the many fliers that have been crowding their mailboxes in advance of Saturday’s election on incorporation, they can tune to local airwaves to hear messages both promoting and opposing creation of the new city.
After months of waging their efforts largely on the pages of social media sites, the pro- and anti-St. George campaigns are buying air time on local TV and radio stations in an effort to get their messages out in the final few days of the campaign.
The No City of St. George PAC began airing its 30-second spots last Friday on WAFB-TV and WBRZ-TV. Campaign consultant Michael Beychok says the PAC made a roughly $35,000 buy on the two stations and plans to purchase additional spots in the coming days, as more money becomes available.
The animated spot depicts an idyllic hamlet that quickly turns ugly, when it has no money to provide basic services like drainage and flood control. Ourso and Beychok produced the spot with Echo Tango.
The City of St. George PAC, meanwhile, is expected to begin airing spots on local TV as soon as tomorrow. The PAC made a roughly $18,500 media buy this morning with WAFB-TV, according to the Federal Communication Commission website. The spot, schedule to run through Thursday, was produced by Magnolia Media.
St. George officials did not return a call seeking comment.
The ads come amidst a hotly contested election that some say is too close to call and no one has polled independently. Record early voter turnout last week—especially at locations on Essen Lane and Coursey Boulevard, in the proposed city—have been interpreted by some analysts as favorable to the incorporation effort.
But Beychok, who acknowledges the election will likely be a nail biter, says he doesn’t read anything into the numbers.
“As a qualified election expert I can say no one knows what the heck those numbers really mean except to tell us how many people voted,” says Beychok, who has been certified as an expert to testify in election-related cases. “At the end of the day, the numbers are similar to the 2018 early vote numbers in terms of the percentage of Democrats, Republicans, whites and blacks, who voted. So while there are a lot more early voters this year, the percentages are pretty close.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to reflect the amount of the City of St. George media buy on WAFB.
