From The Huffington Post:
Two Republican super PACs used the same supposed voter in newly released ads for at least three different Senate races, including those in Maine, Iowa and Kansas.
In an ad produced by American Crossroads that aired in Kansas, a brown-haired woman criticizes Democratic Senate candidate Barbara Bollier.
“She wants to take away all guns,” the woman in the ad says of Bollier. (In fact, Bollier has said she supports the Second Amendment.)
“Too extreme for Kanas” flashes on the ad next to Bollier’s name, giving the impression that the woman in the ad is a voter in Kansas.
But that same woman has appeared in Senate race ads in Maine and Iowa as well, making it clear that she’s an actor and revealing the conservative groups’ apparent deception.
Here’s the Iowa ad:
Here’s the one in Maine:
Let’s check in on the status of these three races. First off, Maine:
Maine state House Speaker Sara Gideon (D) holds a narrow 3-point lead over Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in Maine’s closely watched Senate race, according to a new Colby College poll released on Wednesday.
With less than a week to go before Election Day, the poll shows Gideon as the first choice of 46.6 percent of Maine voters, while 43.4 percent say Collins is their preferred candidate. Independents Max Linn and Lisa Savage notched 1.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.
The Senate race in Maine is one the most competitive in the country this year and is among several contests that will determine party control of the Senate in 2021. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority, meaning Democrats need to pick up at least three and the White House to take control.
Next up, Iowa:
Republican Senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Deb Fischer of Nebraska were both seen without masks at President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Omaha on Tuesday night.
As Trump gave a shout out to Ernst and Fischer during his address in Nebraska, the live-stream camera panned to the two Republicans. Both were surrounded by attendees and neither were wearing masks.
"Deb Fischer, who's fantastic, she's my favorite senator from the State of Nebraska by far," Trump said. "Joni, thank you very much, and I heard you're doing very well. I just saw some very nice numbers."
Theresa Greenfield’s (D. IA) campaign is being responsible:
Theresa Greenfield, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa, will pause her campaign's RV tour after members of her staff came into contact with a person who later tested positive for COVID-19.
The disruption comes just six days before Election Day as campaigns make their final push to meet with and persuade voters. Greenfield is in the midst of an intensely competitive race against Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst.
"While masks and social distancing measures are required at all of our in-person events, our campaign is temporarily pausing our RV tour, including today’s events, at the advice of medical professionals in order to take appropriate precautions to ensure we protect the health and safety of Iowans and our team," campaign spokesperson Sam Newton said in a statement Wednesday.
Newton said Greenfield plans to be tested.
"Theresa regularly gets tested for COVID-19 and recently tested negative, but she’s getting tested again to be safe," he said in the statement. "She is eager to get back on her GOTV tour once we get test results and we’re absolutely certain it’s safe to do so, which is hopefully very soon.”
But that hasn’t been slowing down her campaign:
On a Monday earlier this month, Theresa Greenfield, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Iowa, was trying to win over more of these voters with a swing through four counties in the state’s northwest corner that had backed Democrat Barack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016. Each socially distanced, mask-wearing stop was designed to highlight a different reason why voters in these sparsely populated rural counties might be tempted to abandon the GOP Sen. Joni Ernst and the Republican Party.
CrawDaddy Outdoors was surviving ― people can kayak even during a pandemic ― but many of its neighbors on the main commercial drag in Waverly were struggling. The owner of Scott Pharmacy in nearby Fayette talked about how consolidation in the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was making it harder for independent drugstores like his own to survive. Trump’s trade war had hit the timber business in Elkader, to the east, blocking it from selling to Chinese customers. In Decorah, the owner of an organic farm had taken a part-time job at the U.S. Postal Service to help make ends meet.
At each stop, Greenfield, whose accent and relentless cheeriness peg her as a native daughter of the Midwest, pointed to solutions: A focus on vocational schools and community colleges, along with new infrastructure funding, could boost the economy. A public option and granting Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices would help seniors afford prescriptions. Ditching Trump’s preference for bilateral trade deals could open up foreign markets. She would work to increase access to capital for small farmers.
And from earlier this month:
Iowa Democrat Theresa Greenfield raked in a record $28.7 million for her Senate bid in the third quarter of 2020.
The haul, the highest amount in any quarter for an Iowa Senate candidate, helped send her into October with more than $9 million cash on hand in her challenge to Sen. Joni Ernst (R). Ninety-five percent of Greenfield’s contributions in the third quarter were $100 or less.
“This record-shattering haul is more proof that as Iowans begin early voting, they’re ready for change in the U.S. Senate,” said Greenfield spokesperson Izzi Levy. “While Senator Ernst struggles to defend her failed record of selling out Iowans for her corporate PAC donors, Theresa’s grassroots momentum continues to grow — all without accepting a single dime from corporate PACs.”
And in Kansas:
A staffer on U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall’s Senate campaign tested positive for the coronavirus last week, Marshall’s campaign confirmed Tuesday, although they noted that there was no contact between Marshall and the worker since before the exposure.
The news, first reported by the Kansas City Star, comes in the final days of Marshall’s battle with Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in Washington, D.C.
The staffer has been a full-time member of Marshall’s campaign but their most recent contact with the candidate came earlier in October on a statewide bus tour sponsored by the Kansas Republican Party.
They later began self-quarantining after developing symptoms following exposure at a “personal event,” according to a statement from Marshall’s chief of staff, Brent Robertson. They then tested positive for the coronavirus last week.
By the way, Dr. Barbara Bollier (D. KS) continues to crush it:
Democrat Barbara Bollier has raised $4.3 million this month for her campaign for Kansas’ open U.S. Senate seat, extending her fundraising advantage over Republican Roger Marshall and boosting her state record for fundraising to nearly $25 million.
Bollier, a Kansas City-area state senator, has raised more than five times as much money so far in October as Marshall, a two-term congressman for central and western Kansas, according to reports filed by their campaigns. Marshall’s total for October so far was about $791,000, to bring his fundraising to about $6.3 million, including contributions to his GOP primary race.
Democratic candidates across the U.S. have seen a flood of contributions as their party seeks to overturn the GOP’s 53-47 Senate majority.
She’s been getting support from young voters:
Kenna McNally breaks off mid-sentence. She’s distracted by a phone message in a group chat from a campaign volunteer.
Kenna says the volunteer just got off the phone with a voter who said, “Oh, you mean Barbara Bollier, the one who supports killing babies and ripping them apart limb by limb?”
Kenna, 16, is a junior at Lawrence High School and the vice chair of Kansas High School Democrats (KSHSD). Since the spring, she and Lyle Griggs, chair of KSHSD, have been campaigning for physician Barbara Bollier (pronounced bowl-yay), who is running for election to the U.S. Senate in November.
The race between Bollier and her Republican opponent Roger Marshall is currently neck and neck. A win for Bollier would represent a sea change for Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and, of course, for the Democratic Party’s bid for control of the Senate.
Let’s keep up the momentum to flip all three of these states. Click below to donate and get involved with the Biden-Harris ticket and Gideon, Greenfield, Bollier and their down ballot Democrats:
Biden-Harris
Maine:
Sara Gideon
Jared Golden
Iowa:
Theresa Greenfield
Abby Finkenauer
Cindy Axne
Rita Hart
JD Scholten
Iowa Democratic Party
Kansas:
Barbara Bollier
Michelle De La Isla
Sharice Davids
Kansas Democratic Party