Service Industry Laments End of Election
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Relieved that the presidential campaign is finally over? Not if you have a business that made an all-American buck on the advertising and crowds on the campaign trail. ``We could have a few more visits,'' said Bill Reynolds, president of Rent-a-John, which supplied portable toilets for several Kerry-Edwards and Bush-Cheney events the past six months. ``If somebody calls for a restroom, we respond to whoever you are.''
Even the candidate-generated gridlock may be missed - at least by Parr Peterson, whose company provided plastic ``pedestrian barriers'' for appearances by President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. ``That's a little bit of whipped cream on top of a pie we work on constantly,'' Peterson said. ``It's nice to have a few things like that.''
Ohio was the center of the election storm, with a combined 46 visits to the state by both candidates, often including multiple stops on a single day.
The frenzy continued right down to the wire as network news teams ringed the Ohio Statehouse in downtown Columbus on the day after the election, waiting to see which candidate would get the state's pivotal 20 electoral votes.
It all made for a good election year overall for Ohio and a banner October, especially in the Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown areas. ``Let's just say if the hotel community in Ohio could band together and change the constitution for an election next year, they would,'' said Keith Stephenson, executive vice president of the Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association.
But the real winners were television stations.
Spending by campaigns and independent groups topped $570 million, mainly in about 20 battleground states, according to PQ Media, a Connecticut custom-media research company. That's up from about $160 million four years ago. ``If you owned a TV station in Florida, Pennsylvania or Ohio - especially Florida or Ohio - you made out gangbusters this year,'' said PQ Media vice president Leo Kivijarv.
In Roseland, N.J., Internet campaign button businessman Chris Daniels filled more than 400 orders this campaign season, three times more than a non-election year. After Nov. 2, he said, about the only potential customers contacting him were collectors and people looking for ``Hillary 2008'' buttons.
The Spalding Group in Louisville, Ky., took advantage of Internet marketing and the fierce competitiveness of the campaign to sell everything from Bush-Cheney signs that could be delivered by mail to ``W 2004 Cufflinks.'' The company is a designated vendor for the Bush-Cheney campaign. ``Obviously it would be great to have a business that continued at the pace that this did,'' said Spalding founder and owner Ted Jackson. ``Nothing equals a presidential election - nothing, not the Super Bowl, not the World Series.''
Even marriage counselors kept busy. Some couples fought over politics while others took advantage of an ear they were paying to fill. Four years ago, ``I don't recall even hardly discussing the election with my clients,'' said Columbus marriage counselor Laura Meers.
``This has been unique in my experience having people who want to come in and actually spend a therapy session discussing their political choices.''
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...38.htm&sc=1110
On the Net:
Spalding Group:
www.spalding-group.com
Campaign Buttons:
www.campaignbuttons-etc.com
11/07/04 14:28