The Romney campaign on Tuesday placed a $470,035 ad buy in the all-important Tampa market, according to a source familiar with the buy. The campaign also purchased ads in the Jacksonville and Fort Myers, although the exact buy in those markets is unknown. The ad, which will start running tomorrow, will air for a week.

This is the second ad buy Romney’s campaign has made in Florida since he became the presumptive Republican nominee for president. In early June, the campaign spent $631,685 on ads that ran in four of the 10 Florida media markets – Fort Myers, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville. That spot featured a 2008 clip of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasting the Obama campaign for “perpetuating falsehoods.” 

Unlike Romney, President Obama’s re-election team has been advertising heavily in the Sunshine State. The president’s campaign has spent over $13 million on ads in Florida since April.

While Romney’s campaign concentrated their advertising dollars in states like Colorado, Ohio, and Virginia, the Republican nominee’s allies more than made up for his absence in Florida, building a massive presence on the airwaves.  And even now that Romney’s campaign has expanded into Florida, the third-party groups backing his bid are showing no signs of scaling back.

On Monday, American Crossroads announced a $10 million ad buy in Florida. The ads will run from Labor Day to Election Day. The $10 million Florida ad campaign is part of a larger $40 million ad buy in seven other swing states.  The group, backed by Karl Rove, supports Romney and is looking to help him defeat President Obama in November.

Crossroads GPS, another pro-Republican group set up by Rove, placed a $6.5 million buy in Florida last week. Their first ad of the buy, “Excuses,” which started airing Monday, focuses on Friday’s disappointing jobs report that left the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent.

Restore Our Future, a super PAC backing Romney, plans to spend $7.2 million on advertisements during the upcoming London Olympics. The ads will run between July 31 and August 9 in Florida and nine other swing states.

–Nora McAlvanah

Tags | ad-buy, American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Mitt Romney, Nora McAlvanah, obama, Restore Our Future, tampa