Frisbie, Schmaltz Races Draw Nearly Half Of Tracked House Ad Spending

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(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/25/2026) Races in two neighboring south-central House districts are sucking up nearly half of all the reserved TV spending in state House races going into the first weekend of absentee voting, based on tracking information from AdImpact.

The 44th District rematch between Rep. Steve Frisbie (R-Battle Creek) and former Rep. Jim Haadsma is seeing $3.35 million in combined committed money up to this point, the most of all 110 House seats. The Republican side accounts for $1.82 million, including $1.68 million attributed to the House Republican Campaign Committee. The Democratic side accounts for $1.53 million.

Nearby in the 46th House District, Rep. Kathy Schmaltz (R-Jackson) received a sizable $1.53 million surge from the House Republican Campaign Committee, giving the incumbent a combined $1.72 million. Democrats are stepping up their spending in the Lansing media market race, too. Over the last 10 days, Democrats have dumped $294,975 more into their candidate, Jan Maino, giving her now $888,868 in total reservations.

The 44th and 46th Districts together account for $5.66 million of the $12.31 million listed across 15 tracked races, or about 46% of the total. The worksheet lists $6.22 million on the Democratic side and $6.09 million on the Republican side overall, though the balance varies considerably by district.

In the last cycle, the 44th and 46th drew significant spending as well, due in part to both being in battleground seats with a financially competitive media market, as opposed to the Detroit DMA. In 2024, Democrats spent millions on broadcast TV in Metro Detroit, only to see them lose the 27th Downriver seat and the 58th Macomb County seat.

The figures follow House Democrats’ Sept. 15 announcement that they had reserved more than $700,000 in broadcast advertising against Hall in the 42nd District. At the time, one Republican-connected political operative suggested that making Hall defend his seat could force the House Republican Campaign Committee to shift resources away from vulnerable members such as Frisbie.

However, that money has not appeared for Hall, at least not yet. AdImpact has nothing being spent on TV or internet in favor of Hall in the 42nd since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, $733,496 is sitting on the ledger for HD-42 Democratic challenger Nick Rowe. However, no additional money has been put into this Kalamazoo County district since the initial surge and the money that has been reserved isn't scheduled to start until October, meaning the power-at-be could still pull the money for this race.