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Romney, Edwards Lead in South Carolina TV Advertising

Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat John Edwards are the leading advertisers in advance of the South Carolina presidential primaries, together accounting for 9,345 TV spots (nearly half of the total), according to data from The Nielsen Company.

According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the advertising intelligence service of Nielsen:

• Between February 2007 and January 15, 2008, the presidential candidates placed 19,191 television advertising spots in South Carolina.
• The Republican contenders (Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee) placed 57% of these ads.
• The three remaining Democratic candidates (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards) have placed 43% of the TV ads.
• Almost half of the Republican ads were run by Mitt Romney, although in the closing days of the campaign he has been out-advertised by Huckabee, Paul and McCain.
• Together, Romney and Edwards accounted for nearly half (48.7%) of TV ad spots in South Carolina.