Campaign Appeals to Inundate South Carolina Voters FORT MILL, S.C. - Voters in South Carolina will have plenty of opportunities to meet the Republican presidential candidates at town-hall-style meetings and campaign rallies over the next week and a half. But why even leave the house? The state will be awash in campaign commercials, direct-mail fliers and automated phone calls in the days leading up to the Jan. 21 primary, all part of a full effort by the campaigns and their "super PACs" to break through in what could be the kind of climactic contest that the New Hampshire primary was not. Five candidates - Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum - are now running ads on local television. Four super PACs have also been on the air in recent days, and other outside issue groups are lining up behind them. One major factor that will differentiate this contest from the New Hampshire primary is the sheer amount of money expected to go into television advertising. In just the last few days, campaigns and super PACs have committed more than $5 million. And that amount will only grow. Mr. Romney, who won the New Hampshire primary decisively on Tuesday, made a $1.2 million purchase for ad time that also includes Florida. Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, bought more time this week as well. But the biggest players will continue to be the super PACs, which can raise unlimited amounts of money but are barred from coordinating with the campaigns they are supporting. As voters in New Hampshire were still going to the polls on Tuesday, the pro-Gingrich and pro-Romney groups were busy buying up slots in markets in Augusta, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C., which reach into South Carolina. They had already been buying heavily across South Carolina. A wealthy backer to the Gingrich group has pledged to donate $5 million, $3.4 million of which has already been committed to advertising. And the pro-Romney group committed $2.3 million of its own this week. The commercials provide a glimpse into the issues that are likely to dominate the discussion in this state - including immigration, jobs, military spending and abortion. Mr. Romney is already being characterized by rivals as a greedy capitalist who closed businesses to enrich himself when he ran Bain Capital. Mr. Gingrich's super PAC is hitting that theme in 30- and 60-second ads taken from a film that contains interviews of people who lost their jobs because of Bain. But the ad war is negative on other fronts as well. Mr. Paul and Mr. Gingrich have been the most aggressive so far. Just in time for New Hampshire primary day on Tuesday, Mr. Gingrich debuted his most scathing ad to date, officially dispensing with what remained of his campaign pledge not to attack his rivals on the air. In an ad called "Changed?" Mr. Gingrich recites a litany of policies that eased access to abortions in Massachusetts while Mr. Romney was governor. "Romney appointed a pro-abortion judge, expanded access to abortion pills," a female narrator says before concluding, "Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney: He can't be trusted." Mr. Paul is also on the air with "Betrayal," a stinging critique of Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum. "One serial hypocrite exposed," a narrator says as a picture of Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, flashes on the screen. Now another has emerged: Rick Santorum: a corporate lobbyist and Washington politician. Other candidates appear to be taking the high road. Whether they choose to remain positive or succumb to the darker art of politics for which South Carolina is known is one of the yet-to-be answered questions of the primary. Current ads suggest that Republicans will continue to depict President Obama as unpatriotic and even un-American, charges that they hope resonate in a state with a large military population. Mr. Romney is attacking Mr. Obama in an ad called "Free Enterprise" that wades into a contentious local issue. He accuses the president of trying to block Boeing from expanding in South Carolina. Referring to a complaint filed against the company by the National Labor Relations Board, Mr. Romney says in the ad that the board is "stacked with union stooges selected by the president." He then levels a charge he regularly utters on the campaign trail: "That is simply un-American." Mr. Perry's campaign plans to run a 60-second commercial, "President of Honor," first unveiled in a limited run in Iowa during Christmas. In the ad, Mr. Perry is the candidate who will stand up for veterans, but it also suggests that Mr. Obama is hostile to American values. "You can't tell me that America isn't exceptional," says one veteran, Daniel P. Moran, a Purple Heart honoree whose face was disfigured in battle. You can't tell me that. Because I've seen it. Mr. Perry says, "We can surely recapture what is great about America. And we can restore this nation to its pre-eminence in the world. The ad also contains religious imagery that is notable for how overt it is. Mr. Perry is shown in a still photo standing in front of an illuminated cross, addressing a congregation. An aerial shot of a church steeple fills one frame, followed by a picture of Mr. Perry standing shoulder to shoulder with Mike Huckabee, a popular figure in the religious conservative movement. Mr. Santorum, too, touches on the theme of abandoned American values under Mr. Obama, albeit in a much softer way. In "Best Chance," Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, appears on the screen to music that sounds like the introduction to the TV show "Bonanza." As video of Mr. Santorum with his family plays, a narrator describes him as a Tea Party favorite and a "full-spectrum" conservative "who gives us the best chance to take back America." Apart from the commercials, South Carolinians have already started receiving direct-mail fliers. A recent one from Mr. Romney talks up his "strong stand against illegal immigration" and says he will erect a "high-tech fence" along the border. Immigration seems set to play a large role in the primary. A group called Numbers USA has been running commercials that call on Congress to tighten immigration rules. A diverse cast of characters - white, black, Asian and Hispanic - ask, "Should Congress give new work permits to 1 million new legal immigrants again this year when 20 million Americans of all colors, national origin and religion are having trouble finding jobs?"