Analyst testifies that TV spots were meant to hype Brown

HELENA - A communications instructor said Monday that public service announcements featuring Secretary of State Bob Brown were designed to highlight him and not his message about changes in Montana election laws.

Everything about the TV spots, including when they aired, was meant to make Brown a more familiar name to Montanans as he campaigned for the Republican nomination for governor, said Susan Balter-Reitz, an associate professor at Montana State University-Billings.

''Both visually and textually, the PSAs are designed in a way to give prominence to Bob Brown,'' she said during a hearing h...