It's been said often during this busy election cycle that the race for state Attorney General is running far, far under-the-radar. But in the closing weeks before Election Day, television ad buys from both major-party candidates have penetrated media markets in Philadelphia and elsewhere, as incumbent Republican Tom Corbett and Democratic challenger John Morganelli position themselves for what increasingly looks like a tight race.

The jump in commercial saturation started earlier this month and has picked up steam in the last couple weeks. Ads for the two candidates have been particularly noticeable in the Philadelphia region, where both candidates face varying name-recognition problems. Ads have been running on all three major cable-news networks, and both campaigns have aired a mix of positive and negative spots, though Morganelli's campaign has more frequently gone negative.

Both campaigns acknowledged that their advertisig had picked up, and each spent more than $1 million on airtime and other media buys during the five weeks before Oct. 20, according to recent campaign finance reports.

Still, in a year that the presidential election is commanding attention, it can be difficult for even high-profile row-office campaigns to break through the chatter.

"I hope we're getting noticed more, but to be honest, I'm not sure we're getting through as much as I'd like," Morganelli, a Northampton County District Attorney, told PolitickerPA.com in a recent interview. "We just hope the people that are paying attention will get to know me, and I'm sure Mr. Corbett feels the same way."

Advertising in Philadelphia, the fourth-largest media market in the country, is an expensive affair-especially when many viewers in the market are southern New Jersey voters who can't cast ballots for either candidates.

"From day one, when you purchase media time in Philadelphia, 50 percent of your buy is for people who can't vote for you," Corbett campaign manager Brian Nutt said. "So right off the bat you're paying $700,000 a week for broadcast television, and probably $350,000 of that is wasted."

Corbett has been favored in the race by most political watchers, both because of his incumbency and the tendency to elect Republicans to the state's top law enforcement position. But the state's Democratic registration edge, which now exceeds 1.2 million voters, along with a seemingly large block of undecided voters, could still swing the race Morganelli's way.

In 2004, Corbett edged Republican Jim Eisenhower by about 2 percentage points, or about 108,000 votes. The Democratic registration advantage is significantly greater this year, although Corbett was not an incumbent in 2004.

Muhlenberg College pollster and political scientist Chris Borick has included the race in his daily presidential tracking poll for weeks, and his data has usually shown Corbett's lead in high single-digits. The latest poll has Corbett leading Morganelli by 8 points, 45 percent to 37 percent. But the tracking poll has also shown close to 20 percent of voters still undecided - that figure is 16 percent in the latest poll - and Borick said those undecided voters mean Morganelli has a good shot.

"I'll tell you what, with a big undecided population and the Democratic registration advantage, if they can get some big turnout pop from [Barack] Obama, this race could end up being pretty close," Borick said.

Both candidates have aired positive ads. One of Corbett's spots shows a screen shot of an ad from 2004, highlighting his pledge to go after Internet child predators.

"Four years ago as I campaigned to become Pennsylvania attorney general, I made you a promise, and it's a promise I've kept," he says, going on to describe the offices child predator unit. "And I promise you, I'm not done yet."

Morganelli's positive spots have often featured shots of what appear to be the candidate addressing a jury, juxtaposed with a picture of him alongside Gov. Ed Rendell.

But it's a sampling of the recent negative ads that reflect what has been an increasingly contentious race. Morganelli's campaign has heavily used one, often running only moments after the positive ad, that accuses Corbett of not supporting gun control legislation-a hot topic in the Philadelphia region-and also picturing gunshots sprayed around his face on the screen.

The only negative Corbett ad spotted by PolitickerPA.com notes, among other things, that Morganelli's campaign strategist Tom Severson is under investigation for allegedly illegal campaign tactics.

"Next time you see one of Morganelli's sleazy ads attacking Tom Corbett," an announcer says, "remember this."