Raleigh, N.C. — One of the races mentioned in our breakdown of swing districts in the N.C. state Senate races, is district 18 where Republican Chad Barefoot is taking on Democrat Doug Berger.

Berger is an incumbent, but much of the district is new to him due to redistricting.

Barefoot is aggressively spending on television here. So far, he has purchased roughly $290,000 worth of commercial time on the four largest stations in the market, according to FCC files. Time Warner Cable isn't reporting any Barefoot buys on cable television. 

Thus far, Berger hasn't bought air time and he said he hadn't decided whether he'll try to do so. And based only on cash-on-hand at the end of the 2Q reporting period, which ended July 1, there's some question whether he'd be able to.

Now, people wouldn't buy ads if they didn't work. And certainly, you'd rather have ads airing in your favor than against you. But I've had some smart people question whether television will help down ballot races given the amount of ads on tv for president and the governor?