Romney Goes Up With Ads in S.C.

Mitt Romney is set to hit the airwaves tomorrow in South Carolina, where he has so far been struggling in the polls, in his first significant advertising push in the early voting state.

The move will come on the same day that Mr. Romney will debut yet another new advertisement in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney has been running fourth in many polls in South Carolina, behind Rudolph W. Giuliani, Fred D. Thompson, who is still not yet officially in the race, and even Senator John McCain, whose campaign has been floundering.

Meanwhile, Mr. Romney has been leading by a substantial margin in Iowa and New Hampshire. He has spent almost $2 million in each state in advertising, according to figures from the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which estimates advertising spending. None of his Republican opponents have yet to air a single television commercial.

In South Carolina, however, Mr. Romney has spent only about $200,000 in a small run of ads that were broadcast in March. He also made a light cable news buy in the state in June. Some have wondered whether Mr. Romney would seriously compete in the southern state, where his background as a former governor from Massachusetts and a Mormon is problematic to many Republican primary voters.

But a review of Mr. Romney’s first and second quarter spending shows that he has invested significant resources in his efforts there, pouring in some $464,000 for consulting, direct mail and other expenditures. Many Republican leaders in the state also say that Mr. Romney has the most elaborate ground operation of all of the candidates there. He made his 12th trip to the state, a two-day swing, last week.

The new advertisement in Iowa and New Hampshire, entitled “Energy,” amounts to a slight tweak of a television spot he debuted last week in those two states that featured him jogging down a tree-lined road.

The new 30-second spot shows Mr. Romney running once again, but this time it features his wife, Ann Romney, on the stump declaring: “Every place that Mitt has gone, he has solved problems that people said were nearly impossible.”

An announcer then intones, as images flash past of Mr. Romney’s time at Bain Capital, running the Olympics and as governor, that he “created and revolutionized American businesses, turned around major companies; took on the bankrupt Olympics and turned them around; the Republican Governor who stood up and cut spending instead of raising taxes; and turned around our most Democratic state.”

South Carolinians will see the new “Energy” advertisement within the next two weeks but will first get the original ad of Mr. Romney running in his shorts, his hair ever so slightly mussed.