Obama Reaches Out to the LGBT Community in TX and OH

[From The Left]

Having raised $32 million last month and positioned to raise $50 million in February, The Advocate reports the Obama campaign is lavishing some of its cash advantage on the LGBT community with targeted ad buys in Ohio and Texas leading up to the critical March 4th primaries in both states (Rhode Island and Vermont also vote that day.)

According to Obama LGBT Steering Committee member Eric Stern, the campaign has just completed an ad buy with queer newspapers in the four largest LGBT markets of those two states — Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas and Houston.

Full page ads will appear starting this Friday in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People’s Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice, and OutSmart, which is Houston based. Buying a full-page, four-color ad that appears one time typically costs anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 in weekly publications. In the Gay People’s Chronicle, for instance, the ad cost about $850 according to the paper’s advertising manager; the same ad went for about $1500 in the Dallas Voice.

Stern called the coordinated buy “the icing on the cake” in terms of the Obama camp’s outreach to the gay community in Ohio and Texas. “It’s a direct appeal to LGBT voters asking for their support,”