via
mal contends - Wisconsin is ground zero, along with some seven other states, in the 2008 presidential election.
Small-time (by marketing standards) Milwaukee and Green Bay are two of nation's top four markets for presidential ads, and the state ranks sixth among the key battlegrounds in TV spending (Gilbert,
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
How do we know that? We know through the work of the
Wisconsin Advertising Project, which compiles statistical data on political spending in broadcast media around the country, including this latest report (for which I cannot find a link): Nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's recent advertisements are negative.
And the
Wisconsin Advertising Project is not alone in its contributions to political knowledge.
Wisconsin is ground zero to among the nation's most insightful political data gathering and analyses, often cited by the national media and used as analytical resources in describing voting demographics, voting preferences, and various trends.
Other examples include
Election08Data and
Political Arithmetic.
But these are not secretive campaign strategists planning their appeals to the voters, these are public outfits and publicly minded academics and political junkies.
The value of Wisconsin's long commitment to public education and the Wisconsin Idea is clear.
It is no wonder that the grand-daddy of all polls--the Nielsen ratings--also has long ties to the University of Wisconsin System in Arthur Charles Neilson, Sr.,
BS, University of Wisconsin at Madison (1918).
