Watching television or listening to the radio in Ohio come October of every election year is like a non-stop smorgasbord of campaign ads.

As I wrote in my book Front Row Seat at the Circus:

Two things are a certainty during the fall of every presidential election year in Ohio. First, on any given Saturday, most of the television sets in homes, bars, and restaurants across the state will be tuned in to the Buckeyes. Second, political ads will run back-to-back during every single commercial break during the game, news, prime time, and beyond. If you’re not from Ohio, or any of the other few battleground states, you have no idea why, come fall every two years, viewers can’t wait to see the local car dealer ads again!

So it probably isn’t surprising that over eight days late in this campaign season, Sept. 18 to 26, Ohio saw the biggest jump in TV/radio ad spending, including advance bookings through Election Day.

With a new Cincinnati Enquirer/Suffolk poll showing Richard Cordray (D) leading Mike DeWine (R) in the race for governor, 46% to 40%, DeWine and his supporters spent $14 million on new TV/radio ad buys, bringing their total so far to $25.7 million.

Cordray, along with his allies, spent another $2.2 million, pushing their total to $10.8 million.

Ohio is the ultimate battleground state. It went for Barack Obama twice, in 2008 and 2012, only to give Donald Trump a big win in 2016. Now in this midterm election Democrats find themselves in a much stronger position than they did in 2010, when Republicans won every statewide office.

DeWine and Cordray have battled each other before (DeWine edged Cordray in the 2010 contest for state attorney general) and neither man has the incumbent’s edge (current Republican Gov. John Kasich is term-limited).

These are two exceptional candidates, even though they aren’t acting like it.

Here’s a sample of their increasingly bitter campaign ads:

“Drug dealer: released. Human trafficker: released. Child pornographer: released. If Richard Cordray gets his way, criminals like these could be released early.” That’s the voice-over from a recent DeWine TV ad:

Cordray counters.

“When I heard that Mike DeWine wanted to allow insurance companies to refuse to pay [for treatment] for pre-existing conditions, it made me sick to my stomach,” says an Ohio mother (whose son has a life-threatening pre-existing condition) in a new Cordray commercial:

An NBC poll had the race between Cordray and DeWine tied last week.

As AdAge pointed out, there are 7,990,902 registered voters in Ohio; 6 percent works out to 479,454 undecided voters. The extra $16.2 million in booked advertising works out to about $34 per undecided.

That’s just an awful lot of ads to watch during some Buckeye fueled Saturdays.