In the wake of Doug Hoffman's withdrawal from the House race in New York's 23rd district, Democrats are launching an advertising onslaught against Republican Matt Doheny.
In the last 24 hours, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee layered another week on its existing TV ad buy in the district, according to a Republican strategist who tracks Democratic ad buys. The committee will now be up on the air in the district from Oct. 5 through Election Day. Its ads were originally set to start Oct. 12 in the Watertown media market.
Its first ad says Doheny "funded an organization pushing unfair trade — like NAFTA."
"Worse, Doheny signed a pledge that protected tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas," the announcer says in the spot.
That claim refers to Doheny's support for the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, which says signatories will "oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."
Democrats want to change the current tax law to prevent corporations from deferring taxes on their foreign income, which business groups and Republicans say amounts to a tax increase.
Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.) has also used Doheny's support for the pledge as a political cudgel against his challenger.
Republican sources say the DCCC has significantly increased its ad buy from some $250,000 in the Albany, Syracuse, Watertown and Burlington, Vt. media markets.
Democrats worry that without Hoffman to split the conservative vote, Owens will have trouble holding the Republican-leaning district.
Owens won the November 2009 special election for the seat by only some 3,500 votes — and that was with Republican Dede Scozzafava's name on the ballot.
The state lawmaker suspended her campaign shortly before the vote and said she was supporting Owens. But her name remained on the ballot, and Scozzafava ended up getting more than 8,000 votes — enough to cost Hoffman the election.
Hoffman dropped his bid for the seat earlier this week, but his name will still appear on the ballot on the Conservative line. He said Tuesday that he wants his supporters to vote for Doheny.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) started running radio ads Thursday attacking Rep. Betty Sutton’s (D-Ohio) Republican opponent.
The GOP candidate, Tom Ganley, is a used car salesman running against Sutton in a race that could be a pick-up in the House for his party come November.
The ads attack Ganley for his support of the GOP House leaders' "Pledge to America." SEIU argues that platform will lead to cuts in unemployment benefits and Social Security as well as repeals of financial services and healthcare reforms.
"Tom Ganley will be one more Republican vote against Ohio's middle-class families . … Tom Ganley is wrong for Ohio," the ads say.
The ad buy costs almost $200,000 and will air in the Cleveland and Akron radio markets. The first buy will run through Oct. 12 with a second round coming on Oct. 13.
Ganley's bid recently ran into legal trouble. He's being sued by a woman claiming the Republican wouldn't give her a job because she refused his sexual advances.
The woman filed a police report last Friday accusing Ganley of sexual assault.
Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) was confronted by his GOP challenger, Scott Rigell, at a campaign event Wednesday over the behavior of a Democratic tracker who follows Rigell with a camera at events throughout the district in the hopes of catching his "macaca moment."
In an exchange between the candidates, which was taped by a local TV station, Rigell complains that it's disruptive and appeals to the Democrat to get the tracker to back off.
"If what is done to us consistently was done to you, I would publicly disown it," Rigell told Nye.
At a recent campaign event, Rigell confronted the tracker after he apparently stepped in between the candidate and his wife with a camera.
After Nye says in an interview with WAVY-TV that the tracker is paid for by the Virginia state Democratic Party and is kept at "arm's length" from his campaign, the reporter informs Nye that the tracker is currently sitting just outside in his campaign headquarters.
Campaign trackers are abundant this cycle, with most state parties and competitive campaigns employing one or more to track political opponents at campaign events. A GOP tracker also follows Nye at his campaign events.
The trackers became commonplace after former Sen. George Allen's (R-Va.) "macaca moment," which many think proved decisive in his 2006 loss to Jim Webb.
Nye trails his Republican rival 42 percent to 36, according to new numbers released Wednesday from The Hill midterm poll.
Ohio Republican Jim Renacci remains in the crosshairs of Democrats.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is up with a new TV ad Thursday that goes after the "millionaire" Republican for being a "foreign-trade lobbyist."
Moreover, he "signed a pledge that protected tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas," the announcer says in the 30-second ad.
Renacci is challenging freshman Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio).
In September, the DCCC and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) launched similar ads that focused on the Ohio Republican's tax troubles.
This ad buy, however, is relatively modest — only $35,000, according to the DCCC’s Federal Election Commission filing.
Polls show Boccieri needs to make up ground before Election Day.
He trails his Republican challenger by just three points — 42 percent to 39 — with 15 percent of likely voters undecided, according to The Hill/ANGA poll.
Boccieri's problem is that the remaining undecided voters are largely Republican and independent, making it tough for him to make up much ground. Just 14 percent of remaining undecided voters are Democrats, while 33 percent are Republican and 41 percent independent.
The Hill's poll was conducted Sept. 25-27, consisted of 401 phone interviews among likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is up with a new round of independent expenditure spending, placing ad buys against the GOP opponents of Reps. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), John Salazar (D-Colo.) and Bobby Bright (D-Ala.).
According to independent expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, the DCCC is spending some $250,000 against Republican Scott Tipton in Salazar's district, just shy of $250,000 against Republican Dave Schweikert in Mitchell's district and another $210,000 against Republican Martha Roby in Bright's district.
The National Education Association is also spending heavily against Schweikert, launching a $650,000 buy as part of a $15 million ad campaign to buck up vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
The DCCC also placed a new six figure buy in Rep. Charles Djou's (R-Hawaii) district, one of the real chances for a Democratic pick-up in the House this fall. And the committee is up with buys in several other districts, including some $90,000 in Rep. Phil Hare's (D-Ill.) district, who faces a serious challenge from Republican Bobby Schilling.
Another target is Republican Jeff Perry, who is running against Bill Keating in the open seat race to fill retiring Rep. William Delahunt's (D-Mass.) seat. The committee is spending some $86,000 on an ad buy there. The NRCC is also spending in the 10th District race with a $27,000 buy supporting Perry and another for a spot opposing Keating.
On top of the new ad buys, the DCCC is spending on mailers in seven of the contested districts.
As the DCCC goes up with its new round of IE spending, its also starting to roll back some of the ad time it has reserved ahead of September. The committee has rolled back all but the final week of ad time it had reserved in Arizona for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), according to a Republican media buyer.
The National Education Association (NEA) launched a $15 million ad campaign on Wednesday to help elect several Democratic lawmakers.
The nation’s largest union, with 3.2 million members, released its first round of television ads supporting endangered incumbent Reps. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) and Betty Sutton (D-Ohio). In addition, NEA also has sent out as many as 75,000 pieces of mail in support of Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.).
The NEA's first two ad buys are sizable. In Sutton's district, the NEA placed a $550,000 buy, and in Mitchell's district, the group is spending $650,000, according to independent expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The ad buys are part of a three-pronged campaign, expected to cost more than $40 million, to help candidates that are “clear pro-public education standout[s],” according to the teachers union press release. Along with the direct mail, radio and television ad effort, NEA is upping their member-to-member contact program and campaigning on several ballot initiatives across the country.
Karen M. White, national political director for the NEA, said the union’s members will help boost voter turnout during an election year in which Democrats might suffer from their supporters’ lack of enthusiasm.
“In non-presidential years, our program can be particularly effective because our members vote at a higher rate than the general public and they are registered to vote at a higher rate than the general public,” White told The Hill. “Every off-year, we have to be focused on turnout.”
One factor that is driving teachers’ support for Democrats this year is when the House broke off from its August recess to approve a $26 billion emergency relief bill to prevent layoffs of teachers and state and local government workers.
“When they saw that happen, they realized that it was important to be engaged more than ever this year,” White said about the NEA’s members. “They understand that the political process is connected to the legislative process.”
Along with Kissell, Mitchell and Sutton, the union plans to be active in several other races across the country.
Republican Cory Gardner is up with his first TV ad in his race against Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), and he's going after the incumbent right out of the gate.
The ad takes aim at Markey's voting record, highlighting her yes votes on healthcare reform and cap-and-trade.
"We sent her to Congress to fight for us," the ad's narrator says. "Instead, Betsy Markey has hurt Colorado with one bad vote after another. Markey voted for Obama's takeover of our healthcare system, co-sponsored the law to take away a worker's right to a secret ballot. She even voted for cap-and-trade that could cost 35,000 Colorado jobs."
New numbers out Wednesday from The Hill/ANGA midterm poll show Gardner with an edge. Markey trails by just three points — 44 percent to 41, with 14 percent of likely voters undecided.
The poll offers some hope for Markey, as the race is within the margin of error. She has 89 percent support among Democrats and is winning independents at 43 percent to Gardner’s 39. She even has a decent amount of Republican support, at 11 percent.
The candidate some Republicans say helped elect Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.) in last year's special election for Congress in upstate New York has officially bowed out of the race in 2010.
Doug Hoffman was forging ahead with a third-party bid for the seat after losing out to Matt Doheny in September's Republican primary, but on Tuesday Hoffman decided to end his bid and endorse the GOP nominee.
From the Watertown Daily Times:
Fearing he could "potentially leave Congress in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic party," the one-time tea party icon urged his supporters to cast their vote for the candidate who edged him in the Republican primary, Matthew A. Doheny.
The Saranac Lake accountant acknowledged that he and the Watertown portfolio manager "may have differed on some issues during the course of the race" — most notably, Mr. Doheny's support for abortion during the first trimester.
But in a note to supporters, the Conservative candidate said: "If we truly believe in advancing this movement and reclaiming Congress and our nation, we must all make sacrifices and set aside our egos and our personal dreams."
Hoffman's exit is a relief for the GOP and could spell trouble for Owens if Hoffman's backers coalesce behind Doheny. Even with Hoffman out of the race, his name will still appear on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Hoffman ran on the Conservative Party line in 2009 and narrowly lost to Owens after Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race just days before the election.
Scozzafava, who had the backing of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), threw her support behind the Democrat after exiting the race. Some national Republicans, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had endorsed Hoffman.
Scozzafava still won more than 5 percent of the vote on Election Day.
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