Missouri governor candidates tailor ads to local markets

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster's radio ads in St. Louis tout his support for part of President Barack Obama's health-care law, but his ads airing just two hours north in Hannibal stress his opposition to another part.

The Missouri race to succeed Gov. Jay Nixon is so close, both Koster and Republican nominee Eric Greitens have been tailoring their messages to local audiences, meaning some ads might be seen or heard in one market, with completely different ones in another.

Koster's ads show the political balancing act the former Republican is walking on partisan issues such as the Affordable Care Act.

Before switching parties in 2007 and running for attorney general, Koster voted as a Republican state senator to cut Medicaid access to the poor.

He later said that vote was a mistake.

Koster in 2011 joined Republican attorneys general in other states in pushing back against the law.

But he stopped short of joining a multistate lawsuit, instead filing an amicus brief challenging the heart of the law.

Now, he's campaigning on expanding Missouri eligibility to low-income adults under the terms of Obama's health-care law, as pointed out in the ads airing in St. Louis and other urban areas.

But the ads in Hannibal and more rural areas boast Koster "stood up against Obamacare's insurance mandate" as attorney general.

Greitens' campaign has made note of the different portrayals of Koster's stance on the federal health-care law.

Koster's spokesman David Turner said in a statement the campaign doesn't comment on ad strategy.

"However, Eric Greitens' insistence on conflating two very different issues regarding health care further proves how little he understands about government, and should be a cautionary tale for all Missourians," Turner said. "The fact is Attorney General Koster has frequently pointed out the flaws in the Affordable Care Act but believes Missourians should be able to invest the nearly $2 billion they pay in federal taxes back into the state's infrastructure."

Greitens' ads vary by location as well. Residents in rural areas such as Cape Girardeau are watching a television ad of the former Navy SEAL bringing out "the big guns" and shooting a machine gun.

Those who live in St. Louis and Kansas City won't see the same commercial on TV, although it's online.

Greitens switched up ads after he weathered a bitter four-way GOP primary.

He ran similar ads statewide of himself shooting guns before the primary election but since has stopped airing them in urban areas.

Greitens' campaign manager Austin Chambers said that's because a shorter ad with the same purpose -- attempting to tie Koster to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton -- is running instead of the one of him firing a machine gun.

He said Greitens has not shied away from using guns in campaign advertising.

"We're not trying to hide who we are," Chambers said. "Koster folks are trying to hide who they are and be different people in different parts of the state, and that's what's wrong about this whole thing."

Missouri's gubernatorial race was leading the nation with nearly $34 million spent on broadcast TV ads through Monday, according to figures from the media tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG that were analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity.

Those figures do not include additional money spent on radio, online, direct mail or local cable TV ads, nor the cost of making the ads.

Associated Press writer David A. Lieb contributed to this report.