Last week, the DSCC made their first ad reservations in Missouri’s Senate race, with them investing a hefty $3.5 million on Jason Kander’s behalf. Now, Politico reports that the NRSC is about to jump in to defend Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. While the group has only placed $270,000 worth of ads so far, a GOP source tells them that the NRSC is “preparing for a seven-figure ad buy.” That’s vague (the NRSC spending $1 million is very different than the NRSC spending $9,999,999), but it’s another good indication that both sides agree that Blunt is vulnerable in this conservative state.
The DSCC’s first commercial is also out. They argue that Blunt has gotten rich in DC, and they note that “Blunt’s wife and three kids are all lobbyists.” Kander and his allies have been framing this race as a contest between a veteran who served his country in Afghanistan and a longtime politician who enjoys the perks of power, and the DSCC seems to agree that that’s an effective message.
Team Red also has a simple theme: Jason Kander is a liberal’s liberal. Missouri is likely, though not assured, to go for Donald Trump, so it’s easy to see why Blunt wants to tie his rival as closely as possible to unpopular national Democrats. However, Kander made their campaign to caricature him a bit more difficult last week when he released a powerful commercial that featured him assembling a rifle while blindfolded, while also noting that he supports background checks to keep weapons like that out of the hands of terrorists.
Blunt is out with a response commercial arguing that, no really, Kander is a crazy liberal. Blunt’s ad features footage from Kander’s spot as the narrator insists that “[s]ome people can put together a gun blindfolded.” As the camera pans out, the viewer sees more videos of people assembling guns, and the narrator continues, “Some really, really fast. Some do it upside down and blindfolded. But only one of these is a Hillary Clinton national campaign chairman.” The rest of the commercial argues that Kander got an F from the NRA and backs amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
It feels a bit awkward that even Blunt’s campaign is conceding that Kander is good with guns while still bashing him over the Second Amendment. In fact, even Blunt’s commercial spends a significant amount of time highlighting Kander’s skill before it starts attacking him.
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