Lots of outside money is flowing into the 8th Congressional District race between Steve Kagen and John Gard, almost all of it for attack ads. Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) have been pumping dollars into this race. Each has spent well over a quarter million so far this month, with over 95% of that on both sides for negative ads.
Details on the flip...
And here they are, as pulled from
PoliticalMoneyLine:
DCCC
9/21/2006 - $5800 for production of ads in support of Kagen
9/21/2006 - $5800 for production of ads against Gard
9/20/2006 - $84,107 for ads against Gard
9/12/2006 - $82,065 for ads against Gard
9/12/2006 - $8,900 for production of ads against Gard
9/5/2006 - $80,907 for ads against Gard
9/5/2006 - $8,200 for production of ads against Gard
------------
Totals: $5800 for positive ads, $269,979 for attack ads
NRCC
9/20/2006 - $11,417 for survey
9/15/2006 - $89,130 for ads against Kagen
9/14/2006 - $7,448 for production of ads against Kagen
9/8/2006 - $78,766 for ads against Kagen
9/5/2006 - $75,987 for ads against Kagen
9/1/2006 - $7,192 for production of ads against Kagen
9/1/2006 - $813 for production of ads against Kagen
------------
Totals: $11,417 for a survey, $261,336 for attack ads
A couple of interesting things here. First of all, the fact that both Congressional Committees are involved shows that they believe this is a competitive race that could go either way. And it's pretty typical for them to run lots of attack ads. Part of the reason for this is that outside groups can't coordinate their efforts with campaigns, so it often makes more sense for them to just attack the other guy rather than to risk messing up their own candidate's message discipline by running ads in his favor. I'm not trying to justify this, just explain it.
The NRCC just did a survey in this race, and this is a national pattern. They've spent a lot of money this cycle on surveys and on mailings, while the DCCC is concentrating on TV ads. Since the Republicans are usually ahead of us and do a better job in terms of the mechanics of campaigns, there's probably a lesson to be learned here.
It looks like the DCCC is planning to run another round of ads in the near future because they just paid to produce a couple of new ones. No response yet by the NRCC, although if their polling shows that Gard is still in the running they will probably do the same in the next couple of days.
DISCLAIMER: I want to get this out of the way now, and I won't mention it again. I've met and talked to Steve Kagen, and in my opinion he's an arrogant jerk. I'm not at all convinced he's anything close to being a progressive, and I think a lot of good Democrats in the 8th CD are in for a rude awakening.
But he won the primary, and he is our candidate, and I, being a generally rational person, would much rather see him in that seat than John Gard.
As always, cross-posted on my blog: Reform Dem. If you don't read it there you're missing the very best part, the cartoons!