UPDATED 9/3/23 11:53AM: To include an update that Ramos has expanded his buy to include a minute-long spot.

Ramos coming to your screens. (created via Google image search and still via YouTube/Ramos campaign)

And then there four—on TV!

State Representative Orlando Ramos has become the fourth candidate for mayor of Springfield to begin advertising on television. He follows Mayor Domenic Sarno, at-large Councilor Justin Hurst and Council President Jesse Lederman. Thus far, therapist David Ciampi has not bought any television time.

Ramos’ decision to wait to buy television time to hold off on buying television time had perplexed some. Despite raising the least among the four principal candidates for mayor in 2023, he entered the year with $50,000 raised for his House reelection campaign. A SuperPAC is airing its own plug for Ramos, but he cannot coordinate or control what that entity’s says. He can do that with his own ad.

Ramos did not immediately return a request for comment.

With only two weeks left to go, Springfield televisions are now lighting up with ads from all of the major candidates. This alone signals are paradigm shift from the last two mayoral cycles in the city. In those races, Sarno largely had television to himself.

It was not immediately clear what Ramos’ ad would be. There is a 31-second, semi-introductory video from June on his YouTube page. The campaign could easily clip this to the 30-second spots he has purchased on WWLP. After this post was originally published, Ramos bought minute-long spots on broadcast ostensibly to air this video.

According to documents WWLP has filed with the federal government, Ramos has spent $5,120 before agent fees on ads at the NBC affiliate. Ads will begin airing Tuesday and the buy runs through September 11, the day before the preliminary in Springfield. Like his opponents, Ramos is mostly advertising during local news. While technically a local program, one notable exception are ads he will air during WWLP’s mass appeal.

Or course, they’ve all been on public access TV together by now. (WMP&I)

No other broadcasters or cable reports have filed federal records with Ramos ads of this posting.

The delay in buying ads does not appear to have penalized Ramos. For example, last week Lederman bought ad time for this week on WWLP. It appears the Council President paid the same rates as Ramos for time during the same show on the same day of the week. Sarno bought ads at the same rates one week earlier.

The Hispanic Latino Leaders Now SuperPAC rocked the race last week when it began spending heavily to support Ramos. On Sunday, HLLN filed a report with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance which disclosed it has spent about $8,700 to boost Ramos.

There was another $3,765 disclosed on the report for purchases with Univision, a Spanish-language broadcaster. However, the report did not state who was to benefit form that spending. The SuperPAC has also reserved air time to benefit City Council candidates Norman Roldan and Brian Santaniello.

Among candidate committees, the ad buys are unlikely to change much more aside extensions. For example, on Monday, both WWLP and WGGB filed new ad contracts of $2,170 and $1,450 before agent fees for Hurst. These extend his buy through September 6.

Campaign sources had telegraphed the buy before now, but new filings on Monday show Lederman will is going up on Cable TV as well. The total buy on Cable is $7,459 before agent fees. Federal records show he will begin advertising on CNN, MSNBC, the Hallmark Channel and the History starting Monday. Ads will run through the primary.