PRESIDENTIAL RACE Election was good business for state

Television stations were the big winners during the campaigns.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Relief that the campaign is finally over? No way.
"We could have a few more visits," said Bill Reynolds, president of Rent-a-John, a bipartisan supplier of portable toilets to several Kerry-Edwards and Bush-Cheney events the past six months. "If somebody calls for a restroom, we respond to whoever you are."
TV viewers sick of commercials, lawn care companies trying to negotiate sign-studded yards and drivers hoping to avoid candidate-generated gridlock may not be sorry to see it all end.
But business owners and others who made an all-American buck out of one of the longest and most expensive presidential campaigns in history were a touch wistful this week as the election came to a close.
"That's a little bit of whipped cream on top of a pie we work on constantly," said Parr Peterson, whose company provided plastic "pedestrian barriers" for a Kerry stop in Springfield and an appearance by President Bush with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Columbus. "It's nice to have a few things like that."
Center of attention
Ohio was the center of the election storm, with 46 combined trips to the state by both candidates, often including multiple stops on a single day. Four years ago, Bush and Al Gore combined for only 20 trips.
At the end, Ohio's 20 electoral votes were the fat prize both candidates waited for, and not until midmorning Wednesday did they go to Bush. By that time, satellite trucks from all the major networks ringed the Ohio Statehouse in downtown Columbus, and hoteliers were in a frenzy of anticipation.
Kerry's midday concession speech shattered those hopes, but couldn't take back a good election season and 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.
TV ads
In a campaign so saturated with TV ads that the first sign of a Bush or Kerry commercial could trigger a family room fight for the remote, TV stations were the real winners.
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 like 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 people contacting him were collectors and those looking for a "Hillary 2008" button.
In Louisville, Ky., the Spalding Group took advantage of Internet marketing and the fierce competitiveness of the campaign to sell everything from Bush-Cheney signs that could be delivered to customers by mail -- bypassing the usual distribution through political parties -- to "W 2004 Cufflinks."
Business continued to be strong even after the election with a new line of products trumpeting Bush's victory. 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."
No more talk
Then there were the political analysts, the commentators prized for their ability -- especially on deadline -- to put the latest development in context, the wittier the quip, the better.
"You miss the chase, you miss the heat of the battle, you miss being in the thicket watching it, commenting on it," said Saint Louis University political analyst Ken Warren, who estimated he did 10 to 15 interviews a day with reporters from the United States, Australia, England and Japan.
Even marriage counselors kept busy. Some couples fought over politics while individual spouses -- often women -- 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."