OH-Sen: What BuzzFeed politely refers to as the "political network affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers," but is more simply known as just the Kochtopus, says it's reserving $30 million in TV time for Senate races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and "likely Florida," too. USA Today offers a slightly different accounting, narrowing the timeframe to "August and September," not hedging on Florida, and leaving off Wisconsin entirely, where GOP Sen. Ron Johnson has faced nothing but terrible polling and seems to be just flailing through the motions.
Whatever the precise reservations might amount to, this leak straight from Koch HQ seems to be a form of "We're not dead yet!" pushback in the wake of a major National Review piece on Monday that claimed the Koch bros had slashed their political advertising budget from $130 million to "just" $40 million in 2016. But maybe that's still accurate! BuzzFeed says the Kochs have spent $12.4 million so far this election cycle, so if you add that to $30 million, yep, you wind up right around $40 mil. Perhaps that number will increase, but perhaps not.
And in the meantime, one Kochtopus tentacle is extending outward toward the Ohio Senate race from Freedom Partners, which is running a new $2.2 million ad campaign hitting Democratic ex-Gov. Ted Strickland. Their spot features a self-described businessman named "Keith" who complains about job losses and tax hikes during Strickland's gubernatorial term. Ridiculously, Keith also gripes that "thousands" of jobs "went to other states," which, you know, well, there was a Great Recession going on, so no. Those jobs didn't go elsewhere—they just went away.