AZ-08: DCCC Pulling Out

The DCCC hasn’t spent an especially large amount in defense of freshman Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (just $350K according to our IE tracker), and it seems that they won’t be spending much more:

In southeastern Arizona’s 8th District, incumbent Rep. Gabrielle Giffords denounced a Democratic committee ad that criticized the bus company belonging to Republican Tim Bee’s family.

The ad said the bus company has substandard service, lacks trained drivers and left children unsupervised, and that Bee “should be ashamed of himself.”

The committee pulled the ad as soon as it was aware of Giffords’ displeasure and replaced it with a different one, the Democratic committee’s Crider said.

The committee won’t run any more ads for Giffords after the current ad buys run out.

While we haven’t seen any recent polls from this race, I’ll take the DCCC’s less-than-heavy investment and their decision not to use all of their $705K ad reservation as a good sign for Giffords.

Update: Sounds like they’ll be cutting back on 5th District expenditures, too:

While Republicans have expressed confidence in Schweikert’s ability to unseat Mitchell, the DCCC doesn’t think it’s going to happen.

Accordingly, according to the insider, the DCCC’s ad presence in the 5th district is also going to be “drastically reduced” prior to election day.

The focus for the DCCC in Arizona is now the 3rd Congressional District race, where Bob Lord is attempting to defeat the seven term Republican incumbent, U.S. Rep. John Shadegg. The DCCC, which was once reluctant to put money behind what many considered a long shot candidacy, has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the district in recent weeks.

14 thoughts on “AZ-08: DCCC Pulling Out”

  1. in all the Red to Blue districts?

    I’ve heard nothing about any ad buys in IA-04 by the DCCC or EMILY’s list. Becky Greenwald out-raised Tom Latham in the 3Q but is low now in terms of cash-on-hand.

  2. The RNCC actually has good recruits in AZ-05 and AZ-08 in the homestate of their party’s nominee yet are still going to lose both races, as well as at least one of their own seats (AZ-01) and possibly AZ-03.  So much for downballot help from McCain.

  3. I think there is a good chance she wont be heavily targetted for 2010.  Bee is probably the only Republican here that could make this a race.  

  4. AZ 1 – This seat was comfortably in the Dems hand.  The DCCC has only been spending here to offset spending by Freedom’s Watch.

    AZ 5 – Mitchell is very popular in the Republican leaning district.  If the DCCC starts spending against Shadegg, then the NRCC will give him a pass, which essentially they have already done.  A contested primary left Schweiker broke and the DCCC attacked quickly.

    AZ 8 – Giffords is extremely popular in this evenly split district.  She’s the perfect fit, whereas Bee is simply a radical.  Her money advantage should help her bring him down quickly since the NRCC will not be stepping in anytime soon.

    Could we actually be bringing down Shadegg?  Just imagine how many tears will be cried by those who begged him to stay.  I bet Boehner is hoping he loses because Shadegg will certainly be a threat to Boehner’s position should he survive.

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