Karl Rove announces he’ll do more of the only thing he’s good at: Spending rich people’s money
by Jed Lewison, Daily Kos
Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads announced Wednesday they will spend a combined $4.6 million to run ads on broadcast and cable television in Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, and Virginia.
The hard hitting spots attack Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp, the Democrat’s Senate candidate in North Dakota, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who’s running for his old seat in Nebraska, Rep. Shelley Berkley, the Democrat’s Senate candidate in Nevada, and former Gov. Tim Kaine, the Democrat’s candidate in Virginia.
So far this cycle, Republican-supporting independent groups and Super PACs have blown their Democratic rivals out of the water. As TPM reports:
Republican-allied groups like 60 Plus, the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads and the Chamber of Commerce have spent $36 million in Senate races already. Democratic-supporting groups have spent closer to $12 million.
With the new ad buy, Republicans are looking at a nearly 4:1 spending advantage through June, and with Rove’s group alone promising $300 million in spending, it could get much worse. The one bit of good news for Democrats is that there’s still five months left before election day, and if Democratic allies step up, there is some room to close the gap. In fact, earlier today the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee called on Democrats to do just that:
Democrats are becoming more and more vocal in expressing to their donor base the need to pony up funds to outside spending groups — the same third-party groups that still make many Democratic supporters cringe. On Tuesday, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee became the latest to tell Democrats to hold their nose and send money — fast.
“June, July and August are a critical time,” Guy Cecil, executive director of the DSCC, told TPM. “We need our side to wake up.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has made similar comments recently and earlier this year the Obama campaign announced its support for the Priorities USA Super PAC which is boosting the Obama campaign. Unfortunately, there’s a difference between calling for such donations and actually getting them, and as of now, there is much, much more money on the Republican side, and if things don’t change, it will give them a huge advantage in the air wars.