Dems Make Last Ditch Effort For House
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making a last ditch effort to survive a GOP wave by blanketing the airwaves in more than 60 districts in the final week of the campaign.
According to FEC filings late Tuesday, the DCCC purchased $21.6 million worth of air time in 66 districts.
The ad buys represent the breadth of the GOP 's momentum. Among those 66 districts, many were once considered safe Democratic seats, including those held by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Only three of the seats in which Democrats are advertising are held by Republicans.
The DCCC's financial priorities are as revealing as where the committee didn't spend. In most cases indicates that Democrats are trailing their Republican challengers by insurmountable deficits. Those Democrats include Reps. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.), and Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).
The Democratic buy indicates the party is newly worried about a number of districts in which they had not advertised before this final week of the campaign. Virginia's Connolly will see a $1.1 million ad buy, the first time the committee has spent there. The Democrats similarly spent big for the first time protecting Rep. John Adler (D-N.J.), who will benefit from $642,000 in ad spending.
Democrats are also spending in districts held by Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ron Klein (D-Fla.) and Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
The DCCC is spending big on a handful of party-held open seats, including the seat held by Rep. Bill Delahunt. It spent $823,000 on an ad targeting Republican state Rep. Jeff Perry. The party is also going after seats being vacated by Rep. Bart Stupak (D), in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, and David Obey (D), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Democrats are only going on the offense in three of the 66 districts where it spent money. It is spending $776,000 on the open seat vacated by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). It also went up with another $126,000 buy targeting Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii). Lastly, they continue to target the Illinois seat vacated by Rep. Mark Kirk (R) so he could run for the Senate.
A complete breakdown after the jump.
Dist. Member Amount AL-02 Bobby Bright (D) $266,416 AR-01 Open (Berry (D) $538,343 AZ-01 Ann Kirkpatrick (D) $270,805 AZ-05 Harry Mitchell (D) $269,472 AZ-07 Raul Grijalva (D) $82,991 AZ-08 Gabrielle Giffords (D) $132,195 CA-11 Jerry McNerney (D) $471,126 CA-20 Jim Costa (D) $191,580 CO-03 John Salazar (D) $358,249 CO-07 Ed Perlmutter (D) $301,064 CT-05 Chris Murphy (D) $274,950 FL-02 Allen Boyd (D) $170,422 FL-22 Ron Klein (D) $315,840 FL-25 Open (Diaz-Balart) $775,901 HI-01 Charles Djou (R) $126,252 GA-02 Sanford Bishop (D) $256,835 GA-08 Jim Marshall (D) $11,340 IA-01 Bruce Braley (D) $166,944 IA-02 Dave Loebsack (D) $270,353 IA-03 Leonard Boswell (D) $157,790 IL-10 Open (Kirk) $590,722 IL-14 Bill Foster (D) $526,917 IL-17 Phil Hare (D) $92,158 IN-02 Joe Donnelly (D) $179,712 IN-09 Baron Hill (D) $454,496 KY-06 Ben Chandler (D) $133,451 MA-10 Open (Delahunt) $823,060 MD-01 Frank Kratovil (D) $339,824 MI-01 Open (Stupak) $201,432 MI-07 Mark Schauer (D) $364,294 MI-09 Gary Peters (D) $497,250 MN-01 Tim Walz (D) $129,922 MS-01 Travis Childers (D) $224,934 MO-04 Ike Skelton (D) $458,420 NV-03 Dina Titus (D) $404,364 NC-07 Mike McIntyre (D) $62,134 NC-08 Larry Kissell (D) $458,102 ND-AL Earl Pomeroy (D) $294,008 NH-02 Open (Hodes) $487,837 NJ-03 John Adler (D) $642,133 NM-01 Martin Heinrich (D) $372,240 NY-19 John Hall (D) $409,200 NY-20 Scott Murphy (D) $220,320 NY-23 Bill Owens (D) $431,140 NY-24 Michael Arcuri (D) $260,353 OH-06 Charlie Wilson (D) $240,781 OH-16 John Boccieri (D) $296,096 OH-18 Zack Space (D) $277,311 OR-05 Kurt Schrader (D) $354,768 PA-07 Open (Sestak) $702,326 PA-08 Patrick Murphy (D) $544,222 PA-10 Chris Carney (D) $217,500 PA-11 Paul Kanjorski (D) $196,926 PA-12 Mark Critz (D) $325,011 SC-05 John Spratt (D) $252,007 SD-AL S. Herseth Sandlin (D) $262,822 TN-04 Lincoln Davis (D) $168,260 TX-17 Chet Edwards (D) $568,953 TX-23 Ciro Rodriguez (D) $169,021 VA-02 Glenn Nye (D) $88,514 VA-05 Tom Perriello (D) $142,123 VA-11 Gerry Connolly (D) $1,079,867 WA-02 Rich Larsen (D) $344,383 WA-03 Open (Baird) $562,384 WI-07 Open (Obey) $131,383 WV-01 Open (Mollohan) $210,483
This posted was updated at 8:40 a.m. to reflect DCCC spending in Arizona for Kirkpatrick.
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