Do More Spanish-Language Ads Mean More Votes for Romney?

Oct. 1, 2012— -- Television ads are one of the most expensive and ubiquitous tools at a presidential campaign's disposal. That's because they're critical to trying to sway the ever-shrinking, yet coveted, group of undecided voters. Unfortunately, if you live in one of the handful of states that are up for grabs, that means you can probably recite most of them by memory. But that's what happens when more than $500 million has been pumped into political TV advertising in this election, so far.

Naturally, the same drama is being played out on Spanish-language TV, albeit with a smaller cache of cash (only 4.57 percent of all political ads are in Spanish). These ads are often specifically tailored to a Spanish-speaking Latino audience and are considered an effective way for a candidate to make inroads with Latino voters.

But the question remains: are campaigns getting bang for their buck?

Mitt Romney's campaign has said for weeks that a massive post-convention ad-spending blitz on Spanish-language airwaves would help it reverse its poor standing with Latino voters.

After letting President Obama and his allies run virtually uncontested on Spanish-language TV for the better part of a year, Romney and his friends have indeed worked to close that gap.

Romney's campaign ran 2,169 Spanish-language ads between mid-April and the end of August, but that number has skyrocketed to 2,855 ads on the air in the first 23 days of September, according to Kantar Media.

While $7.1 million has been spent on behalf of Obama, $3.2 million has been spent on behalf of Romney in ten states that have high Latino populations, according to a new analysis by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

That's a big shift, considering that Obama and his allies (outside groups and super PACs) were outspending Romney's team nationwide in Spanish by a margin of 12-1 as recently as late August.

So if ad spending is any indication, Romney is making a more concerted push for Latino voters in the final days of the campaign. But that hasn't necessarily translated into more Latino support.

A Latino Decisions/impreMedia tracking poll released Monday showed Obama leading Romney 73-21 percent among Latino registered voters, the president's largest margin yet in the six-week-long survey. The margin, however, is narrower among Latino voters in battleground states, who favor the president 61-33 percent.

Analysts from Latino Decisions suggested that despite better looking numbers in battleground states, it's still tough sledding for Romney to peel away enough support from Obama to win.

"While Republicans had hoped the weak economy would provide an opening to win over Latinos, almost three-fourths of Latinos say they have more confidence in Obama to fix the economy. Romney's infamous comments about the '47 percent' are clearly hurting him among Latinos. He appears out of touch with the average working class family," said Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions.