A new poll shows New York Rep. Michael Arcuri (D) leading businessman Richard Hanna (R), but the party isn't taking that lead for granted.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Tuesday released a TV ad hitting Hanna for, among other things, his position on Social Security.
Arcuri led Hanna 48 percent to 40 percent in a Siena Research Institute poll released Monday. However, the poll of 605 likely voters — the first independent survey of the race — had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percent. Arcuri defeated Hanna by only 4 percent in 2008.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is up with a new spot attacking Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in the race to fill President Obama's former Senate seat.
The open-seat race would be a huge prize for Republicans if Kirk was able to top Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in November. The latest polling has the race in a dead heat.
The DSCC ad marks the first spot from either national committee in the race, though the National Republican Senatorial Committee has already pledged $3.4 million in coordinated money for Kirk.
The 30-second ad hits Kirk's July votes against the extension of unemployment benefits. "We've heard a lot about Mark Kirk's problems lately, but Kirk doesn't know much about ours," the ad says. "On unemployment, Kirk said, 'I've heard very little. I have a very high-income district.' "
The Kirk campaign hit back against the ad quickly Tuesday labeling it "misleading." The campaign said Kirk has voted to extend unemployment benefits a total of six times and has said he would do so again as long as the extension doesn't add to the deficit.
The campaign also pointed out that the Kirk quote the DSCC ad relied on came in 2008, "when unemployment stood at 5.5%."
The DSCC is already spending aggressively in both Colorado and Pennsylvania. The committee has sunk more than $1.5 million into ad buys against Ken Buck in Colorado and more than $2.5 million opposing former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). The committee is also spending in Delaware, where Democrat Chris Coons is now the prohibitive favorite thanks to Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell's GOP primary win, and in Missouri.
The NRSC has spent more than half a million on TV buys in both Colorado and Kentucky, where Republican Rand Paul is in a tight race against Democrat Jack Conway.
In response to the DSCC's ad buy in Illinois, NRSC Communications Director Brian Walsh highlighted the financial commitment Republicans have already made to Kirk. "After they saw what happened to Broadway Bank investors and the Bright Start families, is it any wonder that national Democrats don't seem to trust Alexi Giannoulias with their money?" asked Walsh.
Tennessee Democrat Roy Herron is doing his best to take the shine off of GOP golden boy Stephen Fincher.
Running to succeed retiring Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), Fincher, a farmer and gospel singer, was considered one of the Republicans' top prospects. That's in part because he symbolizes the kind of citizen-politician-outsider voters are responding to this cycle.
The fourth ad from Herron scratches away at Fincher’s personal narrative. "Stephen Fincher: hiding, breaking the law, unworthy of our trust," the announcer says in the spot.
Herron's ad stands in sharp contrast to one that Fincher started airing Tuesday in the Nashville media market. "We need to rise above politics and do what's right for our country," Fincher says in the ad. "I'm just one man, but I'm willing to sacrafice to change things, and then come back home to Frog Jump. ... This is no time for politicians."
If Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) is going to survive in his heavily Republican district this fall, he likely needs ads such as the one his campaign just released.
The 30-second spot takes aim at his own party's leadership in Washington, opening with the words, "When President Obama and Nancy Pelosi pressured Chet Edwards, Chet stood up to them and voted 'no' against their trillion-dollar healthcare bill."
The ad notes the longtime congressman votes with "the conservative Chamber of Commerce 67 percent of the time," and touts the candidate's endorsement from the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund.
"When Washington liberals wanted to take away our guns," the ad's narrator said. "Chet said no."
It's another spot to add to the increasing number of centrist Democrats who are running away from their party in Washington ahead of November's midterms.
Last week, President Obama said he gets the fact that the message for some congressional Democrats this fall might not reflect the priorities of his administration, noting "that's how political races work."
Edwards's district is one that will serve as a pretty good indicator of just how large Republican gains will be this fall.
Given the nature of the district — it's the most Republican district in the country that's represented by a Democrat — it's a top GOP target and like most Republican challengers across the country, Bill Flores is trying to tie Edwards to the Democratic leadership in Congress.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has already run an IE ad against Edwards, taking a shot at his self-proclaimed independence by noting that he voted in favor of both the stimulus and financial bailout bills.
Republicans are confident about winning several House races in New York this cycle, and Rep. John Hall's (D) is one of them.
Hall faces Republican Nan Hayworth, who's running on the GOP, Conservative and Independence lines. In addition to facing united conservative opposition, Hall is also being hit in a TV ad by Revere America, the group founded by former Gov. George Pataki (R) to campaign against the Democrats' healthcare bill.
The ad warns that "government-run healthcare" will lead to "longer waits in doctors' offices," among other things.
"Those who voted for the bloated healthcare bill will now feel the heat for supporting a bill the American people didn’t want," Pataki said in a statement.
Some Democratic activists have grumbled that their side isn't putting significant resources behind positive healthcare messaging. Meanwhile, support for the party's landmark legislation is eroding.
Support for healthcare reform fell seven points in August to 43 percent, while 45 percent of the public have unfavorable views of the bill, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll for August.
As Republicans released a TV ad hitting Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) for supporting the stimulus bill, he defended his vote during a roundtable with reporters Thursday.
"I think passing the recovery package was an essential thing to do in order to save us from, you know, the Great Depression," he said. "And I think economists on both sides of the aisle say it was roughly responsible for three points of GDP."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee released its second ad of the campaign Thursday, which targets Bennet's vote on the stimulus package.
"He voted for the stimulus bill, promising us jobs," a female announcer says in the ad. "But unemployment’s up."
"It's amazing if you look at the advertising that's being run against me," Bennet said at an event hosted by the Third Way, a Democratic-leaning Washington think tank.
"I think the recovery package saved us from falling into not just the worst recession since the Great Depression, but another Great Depression," he said. "But that's not saying a lot from the vantage point of our kids. That seems to me to be not a sufficient standard for success or progress, and that's the point I was trying to make."
Bennet's facing Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck (R) in November. Buck clinched the Senate nomination with the support of the Tea Party and other grassroots conservative groups. Democrats have sought to label Buck and other so-called Tea Party candidates as too "extreme."
Bennet made the same argument.
"I think [Buck is] very extreme on a number of issues from Colorado's point of view,” he said. "He's argued for the privatization of Social Security. He's argued for an end to the Department of Education, an end to federal student loans. He's pro-life, and with no exceptions for rape or incest. He supports Paul Ryan’s [budget] blueprint. Those are positions that are extreme and out of step with the people of my state."
Despite holding views that Bennet argues are "extreme" for Colorado, the senator said he doesn't expect to have an easy race against Buck. "The polls are going to stay close to the end for all kinds of reasons," he told The Ballot Box.
Asked if he would call on President Obama for help in the general election, Bennet was noncommittal.
"I'm grateful for his support," said Bennet, who got fundraising help from the president during his primary. "We're looking at this day by day by day. I mean, all these questions."
California Democrat Ami Bera opened his TV ad campaign with a spot that accuses Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) of "double-dipping into taxpayer money to fund his salary and lavish pension."
"Californians deserve to know who Lungren has been looking out for during his 30-year political career: himself,” said Lucinda Guinn, Bera's campaign manager, in a statement accompanying the ad's release.
Bera, as a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Red to Blue program, is one of his party's top prospects this cycle.
The first-time candidate had a financial advantage over Lungren as of the last reporting period. The Republican incumbent reported having $800,000 in cash on hand at the end of June, compared to $1.14 million for Bera. The congressman spent more than $1.3 million on his reelection in 2008.
Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) is getting hit for being "desperate" to stay in Congress by the same opponent who wanted to defeat him and go to Washington in 2008.
Mitchell is one of several incumbents embroiled in a grudge match with the opponent he faced last cycle during a more favorable national environment. Mitchell defeated Republican David Schweikert by 9 points in 2008, but the two-term Democrat's considered somewhat of an underdog this time around with the momentum and energy building on the Republican side.
The announcer in Schweikert's new TV ad says Mitchell is "running false ads because he's desperate to stay in Washington."
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved airtime in Phoenix, which could be used to reinforce Mitchell, who had $835,000 banked at the start of August. Schweikert reported close to $225,000 cash on hand at the same time.
Illinois Republican Mark Kirk's Senate campaign sought to highlight the positive new TV ad it released last week. Despite continued heated exchanges between the candidates, the 30-second positive didn't mention Alexi Giannoulias, Kirk's Democratic opponent, at all.
"In a country where too many just vote the party line, there are only a few thoughtful, independent leaders who do what's right for us," the female announcer said in Kirk's ad.
But that wasn't the extent of the congressman's new ad campaign. Kirk also released a TV ad last week that hit Giannoulias for wanting to raise taxes. The Kirk campaign did not publicize the ad, but the Giannoulias camp noted its release, saying the move was another sign Kirk "can't be trusted."
Democrat Colleen Hanabusa is trailing Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) in money raised and recent polls, but her latest ad plays like she's ahead.
In the 30-second spot, released on Thursday in Hawaii, Hanabusa speaks directly to the camera and doesn't mention Djou, who defeated her in the May special election for the seat. "I've never been known as a flashy politician; pretty much what you see is what you get," Hanabusa says in the ad.
The take-it-or-leave-it approach may not be the best one for Hanabusa as even the Democratic leadership wasn't satisfied with what it saw with her performance during the special election and chose to back former Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii).
Republicans had some fun with Hanabusa's new ad.
"If Hawaii families get what they see from Hanabusa, they'll see more of their hard-earned money leaving their own pocket to be spent recklessly by the federal government," Joanna Burgos, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Hanabusa recently closed the fundraising deficit she had with Djou. The Democrat raised $330,000 in the last reporting period, according to her pre-primary filing. Djou raised $205,000 during the same time. Hanabusa now trails Djou by less than $25,000 cash on hand, having $403,000 banked for the general compared to $427,000 for Djou.
A pollconducted by the Tarrance Group for Djou's camp in July had the Republican leading Hanabusa 50 percent to 42.
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