DSCC investing $526,000 in Arizona Senate race

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's independent expenditure arm is investing $526,000 in Arizona to back Democratic candidate Richard Carmona.

The buy will run from Oct. 2-8 and is the first DSCC independent expenditure in the state. It comes as Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and state Republicans launch a new attack on what they call Carmona's "hypocrisy" with respect to the tobacco industry.

A report from the Arizona Republic last week revealed Carmona held as much as $90,000 in stock in Phillip Morris and Altria, two of the world's larges tobacco corporations, after he left his post as U.S. Surgeon General -- during which time he frequently spoke out against tobacco use. The Arizona GOP highlighted the report in a release to reporters on Monday.

The Carmona campaign has said that the candidate was unaware of the investments as they were handled by an independent broker, and that he divested himself of them when he found out.

Though Carmona is running in state that leans Republican and one in which Mitt Romney holds a consistent lead over President Obama, he's been able to keep Flake's lead to single digits in most recent polls by framing himself as a moderate reformer not beholden to any party. Flake is countering that strategy by attempting to tie Carmona to Obama, labeling the Democrat "Rubberstamp Rich" for what Carmona's campaign says is his likelihood to rubber-stamp all of Obama's agenda.

The DSCC's new buy makes it clear, however, that Democrats believe this is race they may be able to win.

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