Leading Off:
• IL-Gov: Republican Bruce Rauner features former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka for his new spot. (Fun fact: Ditka thought about running for U.S. Senate in 2004, before deciding that losing to Barack Obama wouldn't be so fun). Unlike a lot of ads featuring celebrities staring at the camera and saying nice things about the candidate, Ditka and Rauner actually appear together here.
It's a strange ad indeed. The two are hanging out together in a bar, where Ditka tells Rauner how awesome he is for standing up to special interests. Rauner then weirdly starts to wonder if maybe he's been too hard on those guys. Eight seconds of silence follows as Ditka stares at him in shock, until Rauner laughingly admits he didn't know what he was thinking. Ditka then implores him to stick to the game plan.
I'm not sure what they're going for here. Are they suggesting that while Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn takes orders from special interests, Rauner takes orders from Mike Ditka? I'll say one thing for Ditka though: He comes off a lot better in this spot than the very wooden Rauner.
Senate:
• AK-Sen: Democratic Sen. Mark Begich recently ran a spot where he attacked Republican Dan Sullivan for allegedly allowing sex offender Jerry Active to get out of jail early, before Active murdered a couple. The family of the victims did not take kindly to the ad, and Begich pulled it amid heavy criticism.
Begich's new spot still uses a similar theme, and criticizes Sullivan for "allowing violent criminals off with light sentences" when Sullivan was state attorney general. The new ad doesn't mention any specific cases and hits Sullivan on a pension fraud case. Still, it's interesting that Begich is going back to this issue after what happened last time.
• CO-Sen: Republican Rep. Cory Gardner recently tried some jujitsu in his race against Democratic Sen. Mark Udall. The socially conservative Gardner ran a spot depreciating himself as the candidate who wants to allow women to have easy access to the pill, while portraying Udall as the guy who wants to make things more difficult. NARAL and MoveOn didn't waste much time calling bullshit on this: In a joint ad, they mention Gardner's very recent support for a personhood bill (which Gardner still co-sponsors) that would outlaw many forms of birth control.
Also on the Democratic side, the DSCC also picks up a similar theme, accusing Gardner of wanting to make abortion a crime. Fair Share Action also spends $226,000 for Udall. For his part, Gardner's new spot continues to tie Udall to Obama.
• IA-Sen: Senate Majority PAC spends another $298,000 against Republican Joni Ernst.
• KY-Sen: Senate Majority PAC spends $410,000 against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union also spends $154,000 on the Democratic side.
• MI-Sen: Republican Terri Lynn Land pushes back on attacks tying her to big polluters. She accuses Democratic Rep. Gary Peters of having $19,000 invested in a company that helps pollute.
Crossroads GPS joins in and spends $800,000 attacking Peters for opposing the Keystone Pipeline. Ending Spending also accuses Peters of being a hypocrite: The size of the buy is $320,000. On the Democratic side, Senate Majority PAC spends $136,000 here, while NextGen Climate unloads $253,000.
• NH-Sen: The DSCC spends $193,000 against Republican Scott Brown.
• WV-Sen: Republican Rep. Shelly Moore Capito runs against Obamacare, not mentioning her Democratic foe Natalie Tennant. Tennant pledges to make healthcare reform better but pledges she won't go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage to children. Tennant highlights her own daughter's heart condition to make her case.
• Chamber: Expenditures from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in several races.
• NRSC: Various expenditures.
Gubernatorial:
• AZ-Gov: The RGA again goes after Democrat Fred DuVal on college tuition.
• CT-Gov: Republican Tom Foley portrays Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy as angry failed governor. The RGA and labor groups have also made new investments here.
• FL-Gov: Democrat Charlie Crist once again hits Republican Gov. Rick Scott on education cuts. Crist also has a Spanish language spot narrated by his running mate Annette Taddeo.
• ME-Gov: Republican Gov. Paul LePage has several people labeled as Democrats saying how great he is.
• MI-Gov: The RGA again ties Democrat Mark Schauer to former Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
House:
• AR-02: Republican French Hill highlights how he helped a church get started when no one else would help.
• AZ-02: Americans for Prosperity goes after Democratic Rep. Ron Barber on spending. The DCCC hits Republican Martha McSally on taxes.
• CO-06: Democrat Andrew Romanoff goes after Republican Rep. Mike Coffman on abortion.
• FL-02: House Majority PAC spends $162,000 against Republican Rep. Steve Southerland. They recently aired this spot against him.
• IL-13: Democrat Ann Callis goes after Republican Rep. Rodney Davis for embracing the perks of Congress while voting against the middle class.
• ME-02: Republican Bruce Poliquin goes biographical.
• NE-02: Democrat Brad Ashford goes after Republican Rep. Lee Terry on veterans' issues.
• NV-03: Democrat Erin Bilbray is positive in her first spot.
• NY-11: Democrat Domenic Recchia has been running positive spots in his race against indicted Republican Rep. Michael Grimm, but he this time he goes right at Grimm's ethics. The spot features people stating each of Grimm's charges, until the ad notes they don't have time to list them all.
• NY-18: Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney talks about fighting for the middle class.
• NY-24: Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei hasn't been seen as especially vulnerable, but he goes after Republican John Katko on equal pay. Maffei was a surprise victim of the 2010 GOP wave, and it looks like he's making sure he won't be caught off-guard.
• WV-02: Republican Alex Mooney goes after Obamacare.