Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Monday that big-name conservative super-PACs have singled her out and are trying to stop her from winning a second term in the Senate.
"I'm getting all the brand names," McCaskil said on MSNBC. "I think I'm at the top of a lot of folks' lists, and I'm really trying to turn it."
McCaskill has been hitting back against GOP-aligned groups that have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking her. Republicans see McCaskill as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate and are eyeing her seat in Missouri as they work to flip the four seats they need for a majority in the Senate if President Obama is reelected.
Crossroads, a group founded by Karl Rove and the largest of the conservative outside groups, has hit McCaskill with television and radio ads, and McCaskill shot back in her first ad of her reelection campaign in February, claiming out-of-state special interests were trying to meddle in the race.
Other outside groups, including the League of Women Voters and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have also targeted McCaskill.
McCaskill also appeared to walk a fine line on a Senate rule that prevents members from soliciting contributions in a federal building.
Responding to a question about groups with anonymous donors that have attacked her, McCaskill, who was being interviewed from the Russell Senate Office Building, urged viewers not to believe attacks from groups that don't disclose who is funding their efforts.
"On the other hand, I'm asking regular folks to be my super-PAC," McCaskill said. "I'm really proud that we raised a lot of money last quarter, but 90 percent of it came from donations of less than $200, and on clairemccaskill.com people can give 25 bucks — and if we get a lot of those, we'll have our own super-PAC."
A McCaskill aide said the senator was not making a direct solicitation, but was offering a hypothetical, understandable alternative to Rove's strategy.
McCaskill lashed out at her Republican opponents, claiming that all three are running to the extreme right of the Republican Party and fighting over who has the backing of the Tea Party.
She said without moderates like herself in the Senate, no work gets done. But she acknowledged that winning another term in Missouri would be a tough job for her and her team over the next six months.
"I'm going to cover the state like a blanket," she said. "I'm not going to get much sleep."
- This post was updatd at 8:04 p.m.
