The 22nd Congressional District race between Incumbent Republican Rep. Brandon Williams and Democratic State Senator John Mannion is expected to be one of the most closely watched races this November. Expect to see a lot of money spent on political ads this fall in the Syracuse and Utica markets.
With the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund supporting Williams and The House Majority Pac and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee supporting Mannion in addition to ads from the candidate campaigns themselves, there will be millions spent on political ads this fall.
Joshua Darr, a professor at Syracuse University, said this means if you’re watching TV, your ad breaks are going to be filled with political ads.
“Districts that are drawn to be competitive like this one are even rarer than they used to be," Darr said. "At the same time, there is more money than there used to be in buying ads. That combination means that Syracuse is going to get soaked.”
Darr said we can also anticipate most of these ads to take a more negative approach — noting research shows negative ads are more informative than positive ads.
“This person voted this way at this time is more informative than this person has a family and likes them," Darr said. "Those positive ads are sometimes just a kind of fluff. But they can also be demotivating and make people cynical and make people want to tune out. So going purely negative, so much that people don't want to watch it anymore is probably a bad strategy from the campaigns.”
Cook Political Report rates the 22nd Congressional District Seat as lean Democrat.
