It looks like Tuesday night's way-too-close special election in Kansas is already causing palpitations on the right. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with close ties to Paul Ryan, now says it'll spend "at least $1 million" on advertising and GOTV to help Republican Greg Gianforte in next month’s special election in Montana—even though Gianforte’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars and can self-fund all he likes. And that comes on top of $700,000 the group had already thrown in for ads attacking Democrat Rob Quist last month.
And that's not all: The NRCC says it's tossing in $273,000 on television and digital ads. And the NRA is chipping in $145,000 on TV, too. Oh, and the GOP is sending Donald Trump, Jr. out to Montana to stump for Gianforte for two days next week. (You think he'll work in a hunting trip, too?)
Is it hair-on-fire time for Republicans? Hard to say—we haven't seen any polling in ages, and they may just be acting super-extra-doubly cautious after the embarrassment in Wichita. But this isn't the kind of behavior you see from a party that feels rock-solid about its chances.