American Crossroads has made Democratic Rep. Ami Bera a top target this fall.
Welcome to the inaugurual edition of the Daily Kos Election ad roundup! Every weekday from now through Election Day, we'll be bringing you summaries of all the day's campaign ads. We'll also be covering notable independent expenditures by third-party groups looking to influence races around the country. Each day, we'll feature a notable ad or expenditure above the fold; below the fold, you'll find writeups for every Senate, gubernatorial, and House ad we can get our hands on. And if you ever spot an ad we might have missed, be sure to let us know.
Leading Off:
• Crossroads: American Crossroads has reserved a total of $3.1 million for the fall, targeting five Democratic incumbents.
Rep. Ami Bera in California's 7th District will bear the biggest brunt, with $895,000 going toward his suburban Sacramento seat. Fellow California freshman Scott Peters doesn't have it much easier, with Crossroads committing $705,000 to his San Diego-based 52nd District. Brad Schneider in Illinois' 10th District will be hit with $640,000, and Bill Enyart in Illinois' 12th District has $565,000 going up against him. Nick Rahall in West Virginia's 3rd District brings up the rear, with Crossroads reserving $335,000 in a race that has already attracted its share of outside spending. None of these targets are really a surprise: Daily Kos Elections rates IL-12 and CA-07 as Lean Democratic, with the rest as tossups.
Senate:
• AR-Sen: Senate Majority PAC spends another $238,000 against Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, possibly as part of their "Children's Hospital" spot. The DSCC also puts down another $214,000 against Cotton.
• CO-Sen: A woman praises Democratic Sen. Mark Udall for helping her community rebuild after it was devastated by flooding last year.
• GA-Sen: The NRSC spends $864,000 against Democrat Michelle Nunn, likely in support of this spot, which began airing this week.
• MI-Sen: Ending Spending continues to fail to live up to their name, spending $666,000 against Democratic Rep. Gary Peters.
• NC-Sen: American Crossroads spends $122,000 for Republican Thom Tillis.
• NH-Sen: Mayday PAC, a group run by law professor Larry Lessig with the intent of fighting big money in politics with more money, had previously announced it would support former state Sen. Jim Rubens in the Sept. 9 Republican primary. The group has put down $143,000, which is unlikely to go very far on its own. With former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown looking like a lock for the GOP nomination, very few other groups have taken Rubens or his fellow primary contender, former Sen. Bob Smith, very seriously.
• OR-Sen: Republican Monica Wehby decries the national debt, declaring "Career politicians are only worried about the next election, I'm worried about the next generation." Wehby doesn't mention her opponent, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, or offer many solutions beyond calling for Congress to watch its budget like regular families do. The Koch-backed Freedom Partners attacks Merkley for Obamacare and portrays him as ineffective in Congress. For some reason, the Freedom Partners ad has a lot of blurry transitions between photos, almost like a high-end PowerPoint presentation.
• WV-Sen: Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito ties Democratic foe Natalie Tennant to national Democrats (this copy of the ad was recorded off the TV, so it's a bit hard to hear). Capito not only links Tennant to Obama, she throws in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and their coal policies. It's a bit odd that Capito threw Reid and Warren in, when Obama is a much better known and more reviled target in the state.
Gubernatorial:
• HI-Gov: Republican Duke Aiona emphasizes the tough decisions he made as a judge.
• MA-Gov: Commonwealth Future, a PAC almost entirely funded by the RGA, airs their second spot in support of Republican Charlie Baker. This one praises Baker for turning around Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, rescuing it from near-bankruptcy.
House:
• FL-18: The Aug. 26 primary is fast approaching, with six unimpressive Republicans facing off to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy in this light red seat, and two of them are out with spots.
Alan Schlesinger (also known as Alan Gold), who was the 2006 Republican Senate nominee in Connecticut, has a very cheap-looking ad in which he portrays himself as the true conservative in the race and links former state Rep. and primary frontrunner Carl Domino to Obama and Democrat Charlie Crist. Shockingly, the narrator does not mention Schlesinger's record as mayor of Derby in the Nutmeg State. Domino ignores his primary contenders and goes straight after Murphy, while portraying himself as someone who can fix Congress.