Blair Butterworth, a longtime Democratic consultant in the Northwest, explains the situation. Essentially, Media Plus is a Republican establishment media buying firm (with a lot of corporate business) and is extending credit to the Reichert campaign. David Goldstein has more. There are various rumors about how this will work. The Seattle Times was the only paper to even report on the story.
KOMO-TV sold Reichert's ad buyer, Media Plus+, the most recent TV slots on credit - a practice that is relatively uncommon for political advertising. KIRO-TV also extended credit for Reichert ads that are running this week, said Burner spokesman Sandeep Kaushik.
Most political campaigns pay for their ads upfront, but KOMO vice president and general manager Jim Clayton said the station sometimes bills buyers it has a good relationship with. He said KOMO regularly works with Media Plus+ and that the agency would be on the hook for the ad buy if the Reichert campaign doesn't pay."
This morning, Kathy Neukirchen, head of Meida Plus, Rep. Reichert's media buyer, confirmed for me that KOMO had given Reichert the time on credit, explaining the arrangement to me like this: Her firm gets its TV time for all its clients, political and commercial, on credit. Media Plus is a big local buyer and has an established relationship with the stations. She pays for the time at the end of the month (the practice is called "Net 30?). Her political clients are treated no differently, she says, than her commercial clients.
Neukirchen says Reichert pays her back daily as the ads run, and that Reichert has already paid her for yesterday's ads and will pay her today for that portion of the rest of the week's buy.
If this is true, and there's no way to verify until after the election when Reichert reports to the FEC, then Reichert will begin pulling down points off TV or his fundraising will rapidly spike (which we'll be able to see through 48 hour reports). Of course, Neukirchen may simply be guessing or hoping that Reichert will pay her back, and if he doesn't, her other Republican and corporate clients will make up the difference.
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