Which Election 2010 race has run the most TV ads? Not the one you'd expect

In an election season that has buzzed with stories from Delaware to Alaska, it is Wisconsin that, by one important measure, has been in the eye of the storm. More television ads ran in the US Senate race in Wisconsin than for any race in any other state, according to the Wesleyan Media Project at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.

Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 7, 18,256 ads aired, which researchers say averages to one ad airing somewhere in Wisconsin every two minutes. Nevada came in second with 17,777 television ads aired during the same five-week period. The race between Sen. Russ Feingold (D), a three-term incumbent, and Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson remains close, according to Pollster.com, which shows Mr. Johnson leading Senator Feingold, 50.8 to 44.6 percent. Close races usually result in a war for television airtime, which becomes essential when races are close and fought "at the margins," says Erika Franklin Fowler, director of the Wesleyan Media Project. Moreover, the high volume of television ads is evidence that the coffers of both campaigns are healthy, says Charles Franklin, a cofounder of Pollster.com and a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.