Not long ago, both the DCCC and House Majority PAC began airing ads in support of Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, even though a fellow Democrat, Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, is also in the race. But Team Blue doesn’t seem to be worried that Schneider will beat Carbajal in California’s 24th Congressional District. Instead, they appear to be concerned that two Republicans, Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian and businessman Justin Fareed, would grab first and second place in the June 7 top-two primary, which would send them both to the general election and give Republicans an automatic pickup in this 54-43 Obama seat. And it looks like the NRCC thinks the same thing is possible, since it’s now spending $220,000 on a spot that seems designed to shift voters from Carbajal to Schneider in order to keep both Democrats from advancing past the primary.
The NRCC’s ad, which comes to us via the National Journal, nominally hits both Carbajal and Schneider. The narrator accuses Carbajal of voting to increase his own pay and using a taxpayer-funded car allowance. However, the spot then “attacks” Schneider for “standing with liberal environmentalists who want to stop off-shore drilling,” and “wanting to go further than Obamacare, supporting universal coverage for everyone.” Of course, these aren’t actually attacks: The GOP is hoping that liberals watching will be disgusted with Carbajal and decide that Schneider is a solid liberal who deserves their vote.
Plenty of politicians and organizations have tried this tactic, with mixed success. In 2012, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill ran ads designed to help then-Rep. Todd Akin defeat two other foes in the Missouri GOP primary. McCaskill spots "blasted" Akin as "pro-family" and "too conservative for Missouri,” which of course only endeared Akin to Republican primary voters and helped him win the nomination. (It was only weeks later that Akin destroyed his campaign with his infamous "legitimate rape” comments.) However, when the DCCC tried a similar approach in a Nebraska House Republican primary earlier this month, the national Republicans’ preferred candidate won decisively.
Part of the reason why these tactics don’t always work is that the ads from national groups aren’t the only ones that voters see. Indeed, Carbajal has a massive financial edge over Schneider, and he’s now out with his sixth TV spot. Once again, Carbajal emphasizes college debt. The narrator says that Carbajal wants to “force the banks to refinance student loans.” Achadjian is also up with a commercial. His narrator claims that Nancy Pelosi and Carbajal are lying about Achadjian to “frighten women voters,” before the candidate’s daughter (who is also his campaign manager) appears and says he “voted to strengthen paid family leave, stop sex discrimination in the workplace, and make college campuses safer for women.”