TV stations running ahead as Illinois political campaigns make big advertising buys

The election may still be eight weeks away, but there's already one clear winner: Chicago television outlets expecting a 100-year flood of campaign ads from the large number of big races that are too close to call.

A tight gubernatorial contest, the state's first truly competitive U.S. Senate race in more than a decade, and a slew of hotly contested U.S. House races will drive political ad spending in Chicago to new heights this fall, industry executives predict. "The pace of this marketplace is very strong," says Vincent Sollecito, vice-president and general sales manager at WLS-TV/Channel 7. "I do think it will be a windfall." Broadcasters and cable outlets could see a 20% increase in the roughly $40 million spent on political TV ads in Chicago in 2008, according to Comcast Cable's estimates. "You will see all political all the time from mid-September to Nov. 2," says Richard Brehm, Comcast's political sales manager in Chicago. That could make a good year even better for local television outlets, which have seen a pickup in spending by their regular commercial advertisers. But huge demand for airtime will drive up rates and make it more expensive for political and non-political advertisers to get their messages out.