Attorney Joe Miller is still considered a long shot ahead of Tuesday's Republican Senate primary in Alaska, but the Tea Party Express has spent nearly $150,000 running radio and TV ads on his behalf over the past week.
The PAC's latest Federal Election Commission filing shows another $18,915 buy placed Sunday. The group has also spent close to $36,000 on two last-minute mailers that hit mailboxes over the weekend. In all, the Tea Party Express has spent more than $500,000 in the state this year.
Still, Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) campaign appears confident ahead of Tuesday. Miller's camp claims internal polling has the race within single digits, but a source close to Murkowski's campaign said their internals have the senator well ahead.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), who endorsed Miller in June, recorded a last-minute robocall for the campaign that went out to voters Monday. She also posted a fundraising appeal on her Facebook page trumpeting Miller's efforts to raise $30,000 for a late TV buy.
"Joe may be the underdog in this fight (because by using the power of a politician’s incumbency after being given her Senate seat by her father, Lisa Murkowski has outspent Joe six to one), but Alaskans see through this and are recognizing Joe’s ability to be a real leader," Palin wrote on her Facebook page.
Palin's political feud with the Murkowskis began in 2006 when she defeated Gov. Frank Murkowski (R) in a Republican primary. Palin has had a rocky relationship with his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, since.
In the robocall she recorded for Miller, Palin also hit Murkowski for voting with Senate Democrats and accuses the senator of "co-sponsoring cap-and-trade."
Despite being wooed by Senate Democrats, Murkowski opposes the current cap-and-trade proposal backed by President Obama. In 2007, Murkowski did co-sponsor a scaled-back version of the bill as part of an attempted bipartisan compromise.
Vice President Joe Biden makes stops in Indiana and Ohio Monday but will only overlap with one of his party's Senate candidates.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) will join Biden at his speech at a Chrysler plant in Toledo. Fisher's campaign has been going through a rough patch recently — a Dayton Daily News article published Saturday noted he was "struggling" to stay in the race.
Earlier Monday, Biden will attend the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Indianapolis, where he'll give a speech. While in Indiana, Biden won't overlap with Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth (D), who can't make the event. According to his campaign, he had a scheduling conflict.
Ellsworth has stated that he hasn't asked for the administration's help in his race against former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.).
"I haven't talked to anybody about coming to Indiana," he told The Ballot Box earlier this month. "I don't have to bring anybody in because there's only two names [on the ballot]. It'll be Ellsworth-Coats."
A spokeswoman for the Ellsworth campaign reiterated that President Obama is "always welcome" in Indiana.
After a summer that saw him outspent by millions, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) leads self-funder Jeff Greene (D) by double digits in two new polls ahead of Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary.
Still, the final numbers out ahead of Election Day underscore the volatility that has characterized the state's Democratic Primary.
According to new numbers from Public Policy, Meek holds a commanding 24-point lead. The congressman leads Greene 51 percent to 27 percent, with 13 percent undecided.
But the final Quinnipiac poll gives Meek just a 10-point edge. In that poll he leads Greene 39 percent to 29 percent, with 28 percent unsure.
In the Public Policy poll, African-American voters make up 25 percent of the sample, helping Meek to a more solid lead. He earns 70 percent support among African-Americans, but also leads by 10 points with white voters: 47-37.
Still, pollster Tom Jensen warns that should Meek defeat Greene on Tuesday, his real problem with Democrats is just beginning. More Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Gov. Charlie Crist (I), who is waging an independent Senate bid, than Meek.
Crist's approval among Democrats in the state is at 57 percent, while Meek's stands at 50 percent.
A new poll in Washington state shows Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) trailing Republican Dino Rossi, which might explain the tone of her first TV ad of the general election.
A SurveyUSA/KING-5 TV poll conducted Aug. 18-19 shows Rossi ahead of Murray 52 percent to 45 percent. And notably, Rossi leads among independents 59 to 35 percent.
The last SurveyUSA poll released earlier this month had Murray up 41 percent to 33 percent.
Meanwhile, Murray's new TV ad notes that "corporate lobbyists" held a D.C. fundraiser for Rossi, and "now Dino supports keeping tax loopholes for corporations that send our jobs over sees," the announcers say in the 30-second spot that was released Sunday. "Dino puts his lobbyist contributors ahead of our jobs, and that won't get us back to work."
A major union has invested almost $1 million in a radio ad targeting Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt (R) for his 2007 vote against raising the federal minimum wage.
"He's been in Washington for 14 years, and he gets paid a $170,000 every year," the announcer says in the minute-long spot. "So, he's pocketed a couple of million dollars since he went to Washington."
The announcer goes on to say Blunt has voted to raise his own pay five times, "but when he had a chance to raise the minimum wage, Congressman Blunt voted no. … He's really out of touch."
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) spent $700,000 on the ad, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
It started airing Friday statewide on more than 200 radio stations outside the St. Louis and Kansas City media markets, according to a union spokesman.
The Blunt camp is asking stations to pull the ad, noting a Springfield station already had.
"Missouri broadcasters have been advised that this is a deceptive and false advertisement that should be pulled from the airwaves immediately," Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for Blunt, said in a statement. "As Robin Carnahan and AFSCME should know, the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits members of Congress from voting to increase their own pay."
Members get an automatic cost-of-living increase calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics unless they vote against receiving it. The House has already voted to freeze its pay through 2011.
Meanwhile, the Blunt camp is pushing other stations to take down the ad.
"We encourage Missouri broadcasters to review the content of the ad, review the U.S. Constitution, get the facts and join KTXR in pulling this advertisement," Chrismer said.
Democrats and their union allies used the minimum wage issue against Republicans effectively in 2006 — particularly in the Midwest. In Iowa, for instance, Democrats were able to use raising the minimum wage as a wedge to help them pick up two House seats and the governor's mansion.
Earlier this week, New Hampshire Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte (R) was under fire from her primary rivals for her office's response to a massive Ponzi scheme.
Businessman Bill Binnie (R) released two new TV ads Monday that featured testimonials from victims of the Financial Resources Mortgage collapse, which cost investors millions of dollars.
On Friday, Ayotte responded with an ad that hits Binnie for being a "liberal." The 30-second spot is airing statewide on cable and broadcast, according to a spokesman for Ayotte.
Tea-Party-backed Republican Clint Didier has a list of demands for his former opponent Dino Rossi, and he said Friday if they aren't met, he won't back Rossi against Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in November.
According to the Seattle Times, Didier laid out his demandsat a news conference.
Didier did not endorse Rossi during a morning news conference in Seattle, but said he would if Rossi signs a pledge not to support new taxes, promises to never vote for anything that would increase the federal budget, and promises to sponsor an anti-abortion bill. Didier finished a fairly distant third in the state's top-two primary Tuesday, but the 12 percent of the vote he garnered is crucial for Rossi to capture in the Democratic state come November.
"There's no doubt he needs all of it," said Seattle-based pollster Stuart Elway. "It's clear that he's going to need all of that Republican vote and most of the independent vote to pull this off."
Murray led the way Tuesday, winning 46 percent of the vote to Rossi's 34 percent in the state's "top-two" primary, advancing both to the general election in November.
No response to Didier's demands just yet from the Rossi campaign. But on Thursday, Rossi spokesperson Jennifer Morris said, "We're highly confident Dino Rossi will continue to build a strong base of support across Washington State."
Rossi does have the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and former House Speaker Dick Armey's Tea Party affiliated group, FreedomWorks.
A strong endorsement from Didier for his former rival would go a long way towards shoring up that support for Rossi, much of which came from the most fervent and energized members of the Tea Party movement in the state.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is traveling to Arkansas to campaign for the Republican Senate nominee.
Thune, often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, will be in Little Rock on Aug. 24 to stump with Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.).
Boozman, who's running against Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), said he considers Thune a role model.
"Senator Thune has been standing up to the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda in the U.S. Senate, the exact type of leadership that the people of Arkansas have been demanding from their U.S. Senator," Boozman said in a statement. "I look forward to welcoming him to Arkansas and, ultimately, serving with him in the U.S. Senate."
Thune famous defeated then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004. He's up for reelection this year but is running unopposed.
Thelatest Rasmussen pollon the Arkansas Senate race shows Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D) numbers dropping to their lowest point yet in her reelection bid against Rep. John Boozman (R).
Boozman leads 65 percent to 27 percent, according to the latest numbers. Four percent prefer another candidate and just 3 percent say they're undecided. A Rasmussen poll from last month had Boozman leading 60-35.
It's obviously a long way to November, but right now Arkansas continues to look like the easiest Senate pick-up on the calendar for Republicans this fall.
Boozman has maintained a large lead over Lincoln since the senator narrowly survived a primary challenge from state Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), and Democrats in Arkansas have still not entirely coalesced around her reelection bid.
The poll found just 69 percent of Democrats backing Lincoln, while 89 percent of Republicans are supporting Boozman.
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