Khazei, latest Fourth District candidate to hit TV, pours $100,000 into ads

Alan Khazei.handout

The campaign for the Fourth Congressional District has suddenly become a race to the airwaves.

Alan Khazei, the cofounder of City Year, has booked roughly $100,000 in television and digital ads, with plans to run them through July, according to his campaign, as the crowded Democratic primary to succeed Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III barrels toward the Sept. 1 primary.

Khazei, 59, joins a sudden surge to television across the district, where Ihssane Leckey, a 35-year-old former Wall Street regulator who announced a $300,000 ad campaign, and Jake Auchincloss, a 32-year-old Newton city councilor who booked nearly $30,000 in television spots, both released their first ads this week.

The moves reflect the financial divide that’s formed in the nine-person primary. Khazei began July with more than $1.1 million in cash on hand, including cash reserved for the general election, according to his campaign, while Auchincloss’s campaign said he had $1.16 million, giving both the race’s biggest war chests. Leckey has poured $750,000 of her own money into her campaign, and had $710,000 to start the month.

Khazei’s one-minute spot describes the Brookline resident, who is running for federal office for the third time, as an outsider who “isn’t a politician or a lobbyist,” and touts his work at City Year, the nonprofit that inspired the national Americorps program.

It’s slated to begin running on cable and broadcast television Friday, according to his campaign.