The third poll this week shows Elizabeth Dole's lead collapsing, and Democratic challenger Kay Hagan gaining, in the wake of a series of DSCC and Majority Action ads hitting Dole, and two positive ads from the Hagan campaign.
From Civitas, with July numbers in parentheses:
Dole (R) 44 (47)
Hagan (D) 41 (38)
Cole (L) 4 (2)
The DSCC's "Rocking Chairs" ad, which aired earlier this month, is one of my favorite ads to air anywhere this cycle; it's lighthearted, humorous, and hits Dole on her greatest liabilities. With ads like that one airing, and Hagan's own ads improving her statewide profile, it's no wonder this race is tightening so quickly.
Apparently, even the caribou are not pleased with Liddy Dole.
Will the NRSC bail her out? Well, they were gonna...but damn, it turns out they justdon't have the coin.
The NRSC reserved about $6 million in ad buys in North Carolina, according to sources from both parties, which was meant to show that the GOP was ready to play hard in what has become a dead heat race between Dole and Democratic challenger Kay Hagan.
But on Wednesday the NRSC yanked the money because, it turns out, the dough was never available in the first place. One GOP Senate source said it was a "head fake" that pulled the rug out from under Dole. But Dole told Politico in a phone interview Thursday that she realizes in this tough national climate for Republicans that she’s on her own in the race and will have to raise all her own money without relying on the NRSC.
Oh, dear, Dole has to do it herself? That's a darn shame, because she proved to be such an incompetent fundraiser and strategist as NRSC chair in 2006, that the Republicans lost six of seven competitive Senate races that year.