WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has swept into a commanding lead in the Missouri primary after spending only peanuts on TV campaign ads.
According to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week, up to Friday, Kerry and second place challenger Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina had spent only $40,000 each in significant television markets to win the biggest prize of Tuesday's seven contests towards the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet polls over the weekend showed Kerry surging towards a landslide triumph there Tuesday with up 50 percent of the total vote. Missouri delivers 74 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in late July.
Kerry's success in Missouri throws into doubt the unsuccessful, big-spending TV advertising of other figures. Perennial presidential hopeful Lyndon LaRouche spent $51,000 for a single 30-minute slot on KMOV, St. Louis' Channel 4. And fading former front-runner, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean spent $1.1 million on five days of TV advertzing in New Hampshire before its Jan. 27 primary -- almost a dollar for every man, woman and child in the state -- only to finish double digits behind Kerry.
