WASHINGTON: Discord among conservatives over the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has resulted in lower spending on advertising and grassroots campaigns in support of her nomination.
The "extreme uncertainty" over Miers by conservatives "has kept her nomination bottled up inside the Beltway," said Bert Brandenberg, executive director of the Justice at Stake Campaign (JSC).
Progress for America, which supports Miers' nomination, was the only group to purchase TV airtime in the first week after she was nominated on October 3, according to analysis by JSC and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
The two ads purchased by Progress for America ran on national cable television and cost about $106,552. The conservative group spent about two-and-a-half times more - $286,165 - on TV ads in support of John Roberts in the first week following his nomination. Liberal groups did not buy any TV ad time in the first week following either nomination, according to the analysis.
"Despite the war chests amassed by both sides, wait-and-see is still the order of the day," said Deborah Goldberg, director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "So far, we've not seen a single dollar spent on TV to oppose the Miers nomination."
Most of the public angst over Miers' nomination has come from right wing circles. Robert Bork, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was defeated in the Senate during President Reagan's second term, has written, "There is, to say the least, a heavy presumption that Ms. Miers ... is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court."
