With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pulling away in the polls – RCP’s poll average currently puts him at 5 points up – one might think the Democrats would turn their fire to more competitive races in North Carolina, Colorado or Iowa.
That apparently is not the plan. The DC Democrats have doubled down on their bet that their nominee, Alison Lundergan Grimes, can still pull through in the roughly 30 days until the midterm elections.
Specifically the party has dumped $1.4 million into new TV ads aimed at bashing McConnell, reports The Hill. They hope the move will renew confidence in donors that the party hasn’t given up on the race.
One major Democrat donor responded positively, “We’re constantly hearing … how the Republican conference is targeting Democrats so, quite frankly, it’s refreshing to see the game played the other way.”
But professor of politics at the University of Kentucky, Al Cross, thinks otherwise:
“When I saw them start up, I thought, ‘Well, maybe they made a commitment long ago that they would be there in October.’ My guess is, they reserve the right to not be there in late October because they’re in too much of a bind to spend money in a race where they don’t think there’s any chance.”
Conventional wisdom seems to point to the likelihood that the party continues investing money into a losing race primarily to keep donors activated, whose money they may also spend in other races once Grimes’ campaign crosses the point of no return in the polls.
