A Well-Heeled Candidate Runs Political Season’s First Radio Ad

It is a scrappy, somewhat corny political ad (click to listen) featuring a stilted exchange about a New York City mayoral candidate that ends with a woman asking, “How do you pronounce his name again”

But in releasing the first 30-second radio spot of the 2013 mayoral race on Monday â€" six months before the primary election â€" John A. Catsimatidis, the supermarket magnate turned political upstart, is sending a message to his Republican rivals: $3 billion can go a long way.

Mr. Catsimatidis has paid about $102,000 to run the ad for two months on local stations, according to an analysis by a competing mayoral campaign. (The Catsimatidis camp would not confirm or deny that figure and declined to disclose details about its ad, besides that it was created in-house.)

The New York radio and television market can be expensive. But consider: one of Mr. Catsimatidis’s Republican rivals, the community newspaper publisher Tom F. Allon, spent $101,217 in total on his campaign over the six-month period ending in January, according to financial filings.

Mr. Catsimatidis, a billionaire listed by Forbes this week as the 458th richest person in the world, is still viewed with skepticism by political operatives who question his commitment to a run for City Hall. But like another wealthy underdog, Michael R. Bloomberg in 2001, he has the ability to begin a large-scale advertising campaign that could bury cash-poor opponents who, accepting public financing, must adhere to strict restrictions on campaign spending.

Joseph J. Lhota, the former transit agency chief and a preferred candidate of the city’s Republican business elite, entered the race lte and is now in financial catch-up mode, devoting much of his time to wooing would-be donors.

Mr. Catsimatidis, meanwhile, rolled out a robo-call to about 400,000 Republican voters last month, and his campaign said television ads could arrive on the airwaves soon. “Stay tuned,” said Robert H. Ryan, a spokesman.

While Mr. Catsimatidis has taken pains to draw distinctions between himself and the current billionaire mayor â€" who is 445 places (and $24 billion) above Mr. Catsimatidis on the Forbes list â€" he does appear to be borrowing some of the rhetoric of independence that Mr. Bloomberg rode to a surprise victory in 2001.

“He’s not a career politician,” says a speaker in the new radio ad. “As mayor, he won’t owe anyone anything. He’ll do what’s right for us.”

There is, however, at least one major ! differenc! e between the advertising strategies of Bloomberg 2001 and Catsimatidis 2013. While Mr. Bloomberg eventually spent tens of millions to blanket the city with ads, he did not release any commercials until declaring his candidacy in June.

Mr. Catsimatidis, with his March debut, has him beat by three months.