‘This traffic report paid for by Bush-Cheney’

BOSTON – This three-car pile up brought to you by … George Bush.

Drivers in battleground states are hearing live radio traffic reports sponsored by the Bush-Cheney campaign, apparently the first presidential ticket to adopt an approach typically favored by car dealerships.

The ads are bracketed around regular traffic reports. An announcer reads “this traffic report is paid for by Bush-Cheney ‘04” and then launches into the traffic update.

At the end of the report, the announcer reads a brief campaign message: “John Kerry recently called terrorism a nuisance – like gambling and prostitution – prompting foreign policy experts to question if Kerry understands the war on terror. President Bush approved this message.”

The Bush campaign said the goal is to link the president’s message to one of the most-listened-to features on drive-time radio.

“It’s a new way to reach out to voters and spread the president’s message,” said Kevin Madden, a Bush campaign spokesman. “To our knowledge, this is the first time a presidential candidate has advertised through traffic reports.”

The campaign is sponsoring reports on radio stations in Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Although one of the ads is playing on a Boston station, Massachusetts drivers, who have endured a decade of traffic tie ups, aren’t the main target. Nearby voters in the battleground state of New Hampshire are.

Republicans long ago gave up any hope of capturing Massachusetts, home of Democratic nominee John Kerry.

And the Kerry-Edwards campaign is skeptical that sponsoring traffic reports is the way to go to reach out to voters.

“We question the wisdom of Bush, who has presided over dramatically escalating gasoline prices, choosing to remind people as they sit in traffic, burning up fuel and their household budget along with it,” said Justine Griffin, a Kerry campaign spokeswoman.

But political analysts said the idea is a good move for decent exposure to a captive audience.

“It’s a damned smart media buy. If you had to decide what radio programming people pay attention to, it’s traffic on the threes,” said Boston University political analyst Tobe Berkovitz, referring to traffic reports repeated every third minute. The traffic reports are marketed by Metro Networks Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Westwood One Inc., which provide live news, sports and weather reports to more than 2,000 radio stations nationwide.