Tampa Bay TV watchers won't be surprised, or happy, about this:  Nielsen Media Research on Thursday named Tampa Bay the country’s top market for TV political commercials. Los Angeles came in No. 2.

"That makes sense,'' Democratic pollster Dave Beattie said of Tampa Bay's volume of political ads. "You've got the highest spending congressional race in the country (Vern Buchanan v. Christine Jennings) and the highest spending state senate race (Republican Kim Berfield vs. Democrat Charlie Justice) in Florida, and you've got every statewide candidate battling for that market." Add in a bunch of open state House candidates, and it's like a tsunamu on our tubes.

"We've gone from being one of the biggest national test markets in the country to being the biggest political swing market in the country,'' Republican media consultant Adam Goodman of Tampa said Thurday, in the midst of producing a last round of ads for assorted candidates. "I think you're going to see more of this, not less of it, as we move into the '08 presidential cycle.''

Read today's story in the Times.