Hotline On Call

If you thought more political ads than ever populated your television viewing in October, it wasn't your imagination. According to Nielsen data, voters were treated to 1.48 million political ads this October, up from 1.41 million in October of 2008.

Viewers in some states saw more political spots than others. If you live in the Cleveland, Ohio, media market, you saw more ads than anyone else in America. In October, 29,689 political spots ran in the Cleveland market, accounting for 23.44 percent of all ads run last month. To put it another way, there were 40 political ads aired every hour of every day in the month of October.

Voters in Columbus, Ohio saw almost as many ads; 24,693, or 23.37 percent of all television ads, were political. The runners up were Portland, Ore. (21.78 percent), Sacramento, Calif. (21.18 percent) and Seattle, Wash. (19.47 percent).

Which voters were spared the onslaught of political advertising? Voters in Jackson, Miss., saw the fewest political spots at 827 or 1.02 percent. Voters in Richmond, Va. (2.45 percent), Lincoln, Neb. (2.79 percent), Salt Lake City, Utah (2.94 percent) and Tyler, Texas (3.60 percent) also got just a small dose of political advertising. Sure, there are probably some voters who prefer ads for car insurance over political spots, but think of all the fun they missed.