Maybe now the AP will stop reporting that the governor has barely tapped into his campaign account.

The general election is still months away, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich is spending $800,000 a week on television commercials, bringing the total amount of money his campaign has spent on political advertising this year to $6.2 million, according to a published report.

Blagojevich has spent the money on nearly 7,500 television commercials that have aired statewide since January, the Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions, citing data provided by a media tracking company. […]

Topinka’s campaign says the impact of Blagojevich’s media blitz, which has featured ads attacking her stance on assault weapons and other issues, is short-lived.

“Since Rod Blagojevich is the messenger, if some people fall for the deceitful attacks in the ads, it would only be temporary,” said Topinka spokesman David Loveday.

And that doesn’t include the nightly tracking polls, the placement fees to his ad consultant, the production costs of the ads, the direct mail, the basic campaign infrastructure costs, etc.

He’s got a heckuva burn rate, but he has a lot of money to burn.

I’ll open comments on Monday.