To Republican Gov. Sean Parnell's frustration, few voters will ever see this ad
Leading Off:
• Ads: It's no secret that viewers in battleground states can be expected to be bombarded with campaign ads. However, the National Journal takes a look at the group that's really suffering: local businesses that can't afford to advertise during election season. Campaigns and outside groups are willing to pay top dollar to get as many spots on the air as they can, and that's left little room for businesses to reserve airtime.
Campaigns can also fall victim to being frozen out. In Alaska, both sides were expecting a competitive Senate race from day one, and they devoured all the ad time they could get. However, Republican Gov. Sean Parnell was not prepared for a real race, but since September he's been fighting for his political life against independent Bill Walker. By the time Parnell wanted to purchase the ads he needed, he found that there just weren't many slots available. An outside group has chipped in $200,000 to help Parnell, but that's just a drop in the ocean compared to all the money going to the Senate race. Sometimes, it just pays to plan ahead.
Head below the fold for a roundup of campaigns that could actually get their ads on the air in races around the country.
Senate:
• AR-Sen: The National Organization of Marriage goes after Demcoratic Sen. Mark Pryor, accusing him of secretly supporting same sex marriage.
• GA-Sen: Republican David Perdue is the latest Republican to invoke Ebola in his ads.
Gubernatorial:
• WI-Gov: Bill Clinton speaks to the camera and vouches for Democrat Mary Burke.
House:
• CA-21: The Latino Victory Project highlights Democratic Amanda Renteria's humble origins.
• MA-09: American Unity PAC seems serious about giving Republican John Chapman a last minute boost in his longshot race against Democratic Rep. Bill Keating. They're spending $307,000 on his behalf, not a monster sum but not nothing.
• NV-04: Normally we don't pay much attention to radio spots, but this is a weird story. With weak Democratic early vote turnout putting Rep. Steven Horsford at risk in this 55-44 Obama seat, the president just recorded a radio ad to help. In a weird twist, Republican Cresent Hardy is paying to play that exact same message, but only in rural areas of the district. Most of the 4th District is located around suburban Las Vegas, with Clark County casting 88 percent of the vote in 2012. Hardy is hoping he can use this spot to juice turnout among the other 12 percent of the district, where Obama has never been popular.
• NY-04: It has been a long time since anyone paid any attention to this open Democratic district, where Kathleen Rice is the heavy favorite against Republican Bruce Blakeman. A group called Independent Majority Group is stepping up at the last minute though, and spending $450,000 for Blakeman. That's not very much in the New York market, but hey, it's something.