Word broke out late last night that the NRCC may be scaling back or pulling out of the MN-03 race, according to Minnestota Public Radio.
I checked the ad buys at WCCO-TV today and found that the National Republican Congressional Committee has canceled a week of ads that were scheduled to run on Republican Erik Paulsen’s behalf.
The public file at WCCO shows that the NRCC cancled 66 spots that were reserved between October 14th and October 20th. The political committee still has $216,450 in time reserved from October 21st to election day on Paulsen’s behalf. The NRCC has also reserved time at KSTP, KMSP and KARE. No word yet on whether the ad buys were scaled back at those stations. The NRCC has been forced to play defense this year so the money reserved for Paulsen may be going to an incumbent in a tough race.
Meanwhile, the NRCC will also run ads on GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann’s behalf. The NRCC has reserved time on Bachmann’s behalf to run between October 20th and election day (at a cost of about $126k) at WCCO.
Still trying to determine if the NRCC money reserved at the other stations is time for Bachman and Paulsen or just Paulsen. They reserved about $1.1 million at the four stations earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved $1.9 million in ads at the four stations. The DCCC started running ads on September 16th and have time booked through election day.
As you already know by this ad and this ad, a lot of the DCCC’s efforts are focused on the match-up between DFLer Ashwin Madia and Republican Erik Paulsen in the 3rd.
It’s too soon to say what all this means. It is possible that they are going to let Freedom’s Crotch pick up the slack. Either way, this is not good news for Paulsen.
I still consider republicans to have a reasonable, though less than 50/50 shot at holding that seat.
Well, of course we won’t know till November. They wouldn’t cancel the ad time until they have seen the NRCC not spend much here.
one of the big local blogs in the state also reported this.
Why the hell are they spending money in the 6th district though? I’d love to think it was close but I’m not seeing it and Bachmann has HORDES of money.