>> nebusiness news from the capital region. in this i is "whington business report""ith abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> thank you for joining us for a look at business and finance in the washington region. we've got economic figures to discuss, and a report on the washington business journal on the most overprpaid and underpaid ceo'o's. it is august and it seems like half the town on vacatation. the rest would be where it not for campaigns and conventions but we are glad d you are here. by taking off on the risk ofof turninon tv in the washington area, you know you will be saturated d with political ads

airing around the clk in key swing g states. an industry where our region has cornered the market place. it means big dollars f businesses around the region with consultants strategist, an advertising specialists being paid milillionto make you want to vote for their guy. to talk abouout thbusiness off politics we have three in the ow with us today. spspent many a day and night deing with the traveling pres cocorps as he crafted the m message for president the candidate newt gingrich and he e is with a potical consultant ararm. eric holder did the same job for bill bradl during his case for the why house -- eric hser. and with every drop -- where chel, why house correspondent for politico. s been a weekek of intense ads slammingng barack obama a and mitt romney. how effectiveve are negative ads. yourur candidate newt gingrichch said let's do away with thehem and

do a positive campaign but did not work. >> they were very well which is why camigns continunue to use them. we thought we would see the bottom of how w campaigns s can go and it will gfurtheher. til there is a major backlash om the voting public we will contue to see campaigns put out the worst possible perception of their oppononent and in r response but campaign will get worse perception of their opponent. >> pect to s see $1.1 billion to be snt on network television ads and a another $200 million and cable-tv ads and they y it is just the topop sling states to stay competitive. if they g more state coming into competitive play, more money will be spent. is it a fact of the four candidates to be spendg theieir money on negative a ads or should they leave itt up to what we now call the super pacs? >> i think it is s ineffectiv for them not to. i i think there is a mind-set in

campaigns that runs essentially this way -- if we don't t do it, we are losing an opptunity. if we do do it, therere are certain ways to o do it but we will not stay out of the game by choioice. the negative part i think c comes and critically with a campaign that is, number one, very titight, and that numbmber two there is not areat deaof traction that eitither mpaign is getting. so, in an era where people are unhahappy andnd disappointed, you will not bring them out with hopepe and chahange. and with it ge and when its that tight you are looking a any advantage in the mart, personally as rc noted, the swing states. >> we play this game,he candididates and their pacs and super pacs -- some money and swing stateses for negative ads but they count on we mediaor free media writing about them.

have been talking about the ad attacking mr. romney, the gentleman saying his wife died of cancer and trying to tie it directly to him losing his job at a factory closed down by mitt romney. a lot of intense furor. and on the oer side, a tax on barack obama for gutting welfare reform. bill wade horn -- how dodo you h have to taka lookok atat these ads? >> you he to covover the ads because they are a major part of the campaign, where the candidates are putting the message out. we saw sarah palin slamming the mea for what t you thought was heherbert tweeting -- perpetratating some of the falsehoods, but the media has gonone after some of the ads etty hard. there s been a l of fact checking t past week. politicoeported the obama campaign d h have a previous connection with h the gentleman egypt in this ad where hehe talke abt his s wife's half. >> the obama campaign had said

we were not familiarar with the story. thatat it was a super pac ran the ad. it turned d out they were on a conference call with him many months agogo. it gets a little bit into the process. it is a big story in this tn because, rthere is some of fafact ccking going on that part of the media coverage of your ads will be whethther they are accurate or not. is there any backlash when an ad generates so many pinocchios as the candidate it is meant too attack is in forable? for example, this attack against mitt romney assocociating him -- anywhere from john stewawart making jokes at the obama campaign's expense when f fact checkers said she d died in n years after the fact reclosable and had her own health insurance.

what is the take-out getting ththe message out witith a negative onslaught? and has to be believable. at the end of the day, people cacannot believe this coul actually happen. but as far as the fact checking those, the media does a good job of dogng canandidates and making them prove why the claims s that are makaking a true that is between the media and campaigns. bu those ads do not come down and they reach a lot more peoe a lot more times than thehe new coverage just because they spend so much more money. there is n no accocountability in the industry on what is correrect and not. >> iis ain is a win is it a gogood plalay by the candidate or anyone trying to brand their products to keep running ads even if they have been attacked by the mededia has not holding up under scriny? >> the standard, i think, in

strategy comes down to ithe upsiside greater than the pain ofof the down side. one of the differences now that makes the continuation of any a d more likely is a bifurcation of content. and the old days, you ran an ad. similar to that he would get a fact check. now after factct checking, but viral explosion of the contents and the opinionbout the contenent and the bloggingng. it setss a train in motion that a loof times campaigns want to dodo becauausehey want to o tackle certain parts of the electorate beyond the actual air time of the ad itself. i think it's got a multiple later benefit for a campaign, unless it ends up having a mobile layer destructive aspects. >> a quick question. we have to gto break. we want to ask you about some of the other tactics. but i question tooth of you- if your b brand is under attack

unfairly, do you ignore the attackcks soou donon't generate mo media coverage or do you respond? mitt romney responding to hararry reid who said he never paiaid taxes, in some ways making it more of a story that was originally journalilists were trying to ignonore the unsubstantiated rumors. do you ignore them or r respond? >> of f any attack left unchecked is your own fault -- you will be hurt by it. >> i wld somewhat disagree.e. when iis on one of the more negative aspects of you candide character -- in mitt romney's ks there are two, rich and out of touch and p people do not like him ry much d the tax ise goes to rich and ouout of touch and not liking him very much goes to the ins -- insinuation but he was connected with this woman l losing health care. if youtart defendiding yourself on personal terms i think you''re trouble. usually when a politician gets

something under h his oher skin and it is personal, they react very badly and it is a very bad thing forheta staffff and the appararatus -- fun for t pressss bubut not so much inside the beltway. >> more questions about branding. stay with us. we will be right back after the break.

>> we are back talking about the business of polits. we only have a couple of minutes left, butachel, there a only a few weeks left and both

campaigns and their super pacs d pacs are snding ndreds of million dollars on advertising but they are running out of ace on television d there is only a f finite money they have. you say there is an innovative new way campaigns are taking to t free adverertising that any business might want to learn from. what is it? >> taking advantage of web a ads this cycle, but said quote on youtube. stepephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for the obama campaign has b become sortrt of a social media phenomenon. youtube push back rapid response is drang a lot of traic. another aspect and a way toet the message out. >> virtually no cost to the campaign. eric, if you only have a few weeks left in a psidential campaign how do you spenend it? >> if i am the obama campaign, i thinkaking romney spent lot of money and time in ohio and sharing ofof t ve in florida.

rc, you are running o of moneney and yoyou have to choose between televion and social media, get out of those strategies p pulng, paying for candates and severeds to fly over the c country. how you spend your final dolls? >> it will come down to the rategist to o tell y which states are the closest and which will make the difference and where do you havmomentum. that is where you put money. you put it in television radio and actually put some of the online so you can get your guy just aoss s the finish line. >> looking at how tight these races a are do you spenend your money focusg, either obam or romney -- we will start with you, sincee you work with republicans. the you go after the undstand undecided swing andnd i or shoring up the base? one side or the other could alienate the other. >> for mitt romney to win he has to win the argument over the economy, for the conservative and d independent voters they

have to believe barack obama is the reason there is a a ba ecomy and romney isis the reason it will improve. >> eric, if youre a democrat, you go after the base of the swing voter? >> and the last three or four days, of very positive for late this ciders.s. think it wilbe very big.g. quickly -- i thinki predict that we will have more disputed vote in states -- in more stes than ever in american history and we will not know the morning after. >> hanging chads. we want to encouourage you to the tune for next week when we have an exclulusive look inside mitt romney's campaign. and of all state trooper a after the break. but first, the better role hot minute. -- federal hot minutute. >> the first justification often given for a federal agency to implement a cloud computing system is the savings they will realize on their i.t. budget. now a study by a reputable research phone that quantifies

the notion. as reported, this study commissioned by amazon web services analyze the 11 organizations of various sizes in and concluded that they spend on average 7% ss by moving to the cloud. nd referenence a different study commissioned by csc corp. whose significant -- participants the not substantial savings. agencies have seen a redtion in their time to deploy new applications. but on the other hand, some agencies have unique id needs or hold highly sensitive data hahave been cautious to theiroves to the cloud. visit www.w.wjla.com/bizz ---

>> welcome back. we have two of o our top roundtable contributors. peter morici, prossor of economics at university of maryland and bryant ruiz senior staff writer ed washingt business urnal. and this week covering one off our favorite topics, ceo's t that are overprpaid and those who are underpaid. bryant, we shohould point ouout the paper wawas quick to say thahat youu are not saying whether or not the ceo pay in regard to the restst of the people going to work every day, whether it is out of whack. but what you did look at is whwhethea ceo's pay was out of whack with his or her compapany performance. sellers about the methodology. >> we took the 50 largest

companies -- publicly traded compies sed in the d.c. area, o by payelative to the company's size, and we looked at different perforormanceetri for the companies and howw much the revenue growth, how m much eaings growth, and the stock performance compared to a pepeer group. we look for mismatches. so someone highly y paid relative to size but global warming would be overpaid. >> let's take look at the ththree most overpaid and landing number one was john welch, from usec in bethesesda. he made $6 million -- that was a raise from last year even though theompany's p performance sank. >> usecc provides nuclear fuel to nuclear power plants and they hahave had a lotf financial chchallengnges. the stochas lost % ofts value. yes. revenue is shrinking, earnings ar down. but the ceoeo made a little more

money. they actuay got pushed back om shareholders, 30% giving them a a no--- no vote. >> number 2, wilkus, american public, numbmber tee, michae laphen from compuputer sciences cocorp. how did they lead the list? >> american capital is a private equity company and they aree very profitable but less profitable than before. because their earnings went down, they rent or on n that. revenue declined, too. >> comomputer sciences corp.? >> they have been having a lot of challenges. the stock has lost a l of value and eaarnings and revenue dodown as well. >> those three ceo's try not to walk to the show but t there are three who may want to show it to eir shareholders. the most undnderpaid ceo -- number one, michael barnello f from

lasalle hotel prproperties. you argue he is underpaid. >> what hpened with michael and d a lot of the other folks on the underpaid side was of their pay w a relatively low of f of and their performance was pretty good. for example, 20% growth in our earnings in their revenue. earnings were up 7%. these kinds of t things help to boost performance. >> number two, sukhakar kesavan at icf international. no. 3, ralph shradader from booz allen hamilton. member a question of these companies performing very well and the ceo pay was pretty low for how well they performed. >> windy employees complain they may wanto see whether their bosses are overprpaid or underpaid. peter, tururning to you. we talked a lot about business

of politics i in this show, but i i wawant ttalk t to you about the politics of business. you argued that there is stormy weather ahead for the e economy and you say that that is a warning sign for mr. romney. what i youcase? >> two sets of issues. both the republilicansnd demomocrats are encouraging businenesses to cuback spending onnvestment and hiring and so forth, and we are starting to se the fst signs of recession right now and the data and it might not be possible to retrieve tha comome february if we have a second term mr. obama or third term mrmr. obama -- mitt romney. in a column i wrotote frididay the mistakes that matter the economy might not matter as muchch as replicans like to think. the election is coming down to eight states and there is no mamath -- rney coulde presidenunless he wiwins virginia a ohio. the economy is n not tt bad in

thosose classes. in f fact,irginia is p pretty good. in those places in --- is having trouble in theolls, ohio, the governor's issue of unions -- >> the ballot issue -- >> almost everybody in ohio is relateted to someone who belongs to a union because a heavy tradition in manufacturing. asas a consequence, it created a t of ambivivalence towarard the republican pararty. in an environment where ohio as a revented itself just about as well as any state in the midwest, it is hard for him to say hcan make the economy appreciably better. in virginia, another set of issues. the e economy is doing well and virginia hasas changnged the lot of on the days when it was se in ththe conservative republican columnmn. women's issues m matter a lot in northern virginia and mr. romney does not come up as well -- and a lot ofof hpanics in the state

to vote. >> i go out to talk to the undecided voters all theime to gea thinker o the polls and there e is some movement toward mitt romney as more and more voters remain coconcerned about the jobs outlook. they say to me that they think mitt romy mabe better on jobs. they don't like the -- that he has not released taxes. >> that is something g else. democrats like t to believe republicans should release their taxes ck to the date of birth. hoand i think there is a little bit of movement and virginia getting g a little t close to call. thank you for joining us. we want you to stay tune because inin these dog days o of summer we want to ask you what you think theercentage of negative ads versus positive ones? the number of the week. stay tuned. the first time i saw fios, it was absolutely amazing. for years and years we had to put up with cable. once we got fios, it was like somebody like took our computer sok all the

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>>elcome back. our mber othe week m not surprise you if the -- if you have that the e television on this campaign s season. "the washington post" says 74 is the percentage of a presididenal campaignommercial that negave from july 23-29. hope it was aositivee experice for you what does this week and stayed to next week where we have a close of work in the e romney camign tatalking about the economy pirie