U.S. Chamber of Commerce enters the ad market

Totals: Almost $4.7 million in contracts for 5,609 spots filed through May 8 at Denver’s five television stations, based on documents filed with the FCC. That’s almost 47 hours just on Denver network stations. Cable companies don’t have to file ad buys with the FCC, and smaller network affiliates don’t have to file until June 1. Here’s a breakdown:

The latest buys: American Petroleum Institute is spending almost $300,000 in the Denver market to urge Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet to vote for the Keystone pipeline. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is running ads supporting Rep. Cory Gardner in his challenged to Udall and for incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in his tough race against former Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in the 6th Congressional District. The League of Conservation Voters also contracted more ads against Gardner, and Udall bought more ads for his campaign as well. Here are the spenders so far:

The news: Last week we emailed KMGH ad sales director Missy Evenson to ask who is the buyer of a $740,000 contract for ads in the fall arranged by a firm that has represented Americans for Prosperity, a conservative nonprofit funded by the Koch brothers. Her email response: “I am not identifying the purchaser of the $740K ads as they are not candidate and are not of national importance.” The station has pulled the contract from the FCC site, but it’s still included in our tally because of the original filing as a political ad.