As the news gets better and better for Larry Grant, the NRCC and Bill Sali get increasingly desperate. As
kos blogged yesterday the polls are showing that the race is essentially a toss-up. As a reflection of this great polling, Grant's hard work on the campaign trail, and the netroots who've helped make this a race, today the DCCC informed the campaign that it has been added to its list of "emerging races."
Sali and the GOP are hitting back hard. Early in the week it was with a radio ad (mp3), complete with scary music:
Democrat Larry Grant wants you to believe he's a moderate, but it's just not true. Truth is, he's just another tax and spend liberal.... In this time of war Larry Grant wants more spending on the arts but supports cutting spending for national missile defense and new weapons systems.... Bill Sali represents our traditional Idaho values. Larry Grant doesn't.
Along with the ads, they're sending out this flier (click to see full image), detailing the evils of Larry Grant. To top it all off, they've started blanketing the district with robocalls.
The Grant campaign believes two versions are being used, one that begins "When you go to the polls on Nov. 7 you'll see the name `Larry Grant' on the ballot. Let me tell you a little about Larry Grant...."The other opens with "Larry Grant needs a lesson in Economics 101...."
Rosebrock said, "One person, who identified himself as a true blue Republican, complained to the campaign about receiving four of these annoying calls within an hour on Thursday evening. He blames us for it. Other complaints come from persons on the statewide "no-call" list who are also being harassed."
This might do the trick of making Bill Sali even more unpopular in the Republican Party than he already was. Remember, this is the guy whose own party member can't stomach:
"That idiot is just an idiot. He doesn't have one ounce of empathy in his whole fricking body. And you can put that in the paper." Bruce Newcomb, Republican Speaker of the House, Idaho Statesman April 8, 2006
"If you want to debate this, I'll put the House at ease and we can go back into my office and I'll throw you out the window." Republican Mike Simpson, Speaker of the Idaho House
"The third floor wasn't high enough. You should have taken him up to the fourth floor." House colleagues of Rep. Simpson, Idaho Statesman, April 7, 2006
As dkos's own Serephin says, Bill Sali: Stupid AND desperate.
Luckily, the voters in Idaho's first district have a real choice, Larry Grant. I'm very pleased that Netroots candidate Larry Grant, my fellow Idahoan, is going to be joining us today in this thread for a little while to chat.