Leading Off:
• AR-Sen: Well, this is new. Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor invokes the recent Ebola scare, and accuses Republican Rep. Tom Cotton of voting against measures to prepare the country for an outbreak. This is definitely the first time any candidate has invoked Ebola in a campaign ad this year (if ever), and it will be interesting to see if anyone else follows suit.
The ad also throws a few other punches at Cotton: It follows up on a recent DSCC ad campaign that went after Cotton for voting against funding a children's hospital. The narrator also says Cotton voted for tax breaks for the rich instead of protecting people. But it's safe to say the Ebola stuff will be the most talked about part of the commercial.
Senate:
• AK-Sen: The International Association of Fire Fighters hits Republican Dan Sullivan, tying him to the Koch brothers and their plans to shut down a local refinery. We flagged the size of the buy a little while ago: $164,000.
Sullivan is out with his own ad, decrying Washington outside spending and blaming Democratic Sen. Mark Begich for not signing a pledge to keep them out. Sullivan also fires bullets into a TV, which is certainly memorable.
• CO-Sen: Democratic Sen. Mark Udall is out with a Spanish language spot, portraying Republican Rep. Cory Gardner as being unwilling to help returning veterans.
• KY-Sen: The narrator in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's spot calls Democratic rival Alison Lundergan Grimes's attacks false, citing fact checkers. The narrator then attacks Grimes, with attacks I'm sure will hold up to fact checker's scrutiny. The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition praises McConnell on jobs.
• MI-Sen: Democratic Rep. Gary Peters goes biographical before he touts his agenda. Republican rival Terri Lynn Land attacks Peters for letting the gas tax money go to Washington rather than using it to fix the state's roads.
• NH-Sen: It's Scott Brown week in New Hampshire, with three new ads coming out in support of the Republican. Independent Leadership for New Hampshire criticizes Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen for voting with Obama as things get worse for the middle class. Ending Spending has a minute-long spot accusing Shaheen of using her votes in the Senate to enrich her family. Brown himself features would-be Senate Republican colleague Kelly Ayotte praising Brown.
• VA-Sen: We recently highlighted a spot from Virginia Progress hitting Republican Ed Gillespie, and now we know it's running for $521,000.
Gubernatorial:
• AR-Gov: The RGA accuses Democrat Mike Ross for selling his pharmacy to a campaign donor's company in a sweetheart deal.
• AZ-Gov: With Tuesday's Republican primary concluding, Democrat Fred DuVal is going out with his first spot. The spot features former Republican Attorney General Grant Woods praising DuVal as a problem solver. The spot is only airing for $61,000, but expect DuVal to ramp up now that the general election is starting.
• RI-Gov: Democratic Providence Mayor Angel Taveras cites his city's turnaround under his watch.
• SC-Gov: Republican Gov. Nikki Haley has three new positive ads (here, here, and here). The first spot is quite good: Haley talks about how she received a suicide note from an eighth-grade girl who was being bullied at school; the student's mother describe how Haley personally called the girl and told her to go to school with her head held high. This is the first campaign ad I can recall that's centered on school bullying.
House:
• CO-06: Republican Rep. Mike Coffman is out with his first spot, with the narrator praising Coffman for standing up for women.
• CT-05: Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty is up with her first spot, featuring a veteran praising Esty for helping him get his Social Security back.
• FL-02: The NRCC goes right after Democrat Gwen Graham on Obamacare.
• IL-10: Republican Bob Dold portrays himself as a problem-solver. Shockingly, it doesn't bother to record his record when he served in the House, preferring instead to focus on his business background.
• MT-AL: Democrat John Lewis has his first ad, where he calls for defending pensions for seniors and veterans.
• NH-02: The Club for Growth is once again hitting Republican former state Sen. Gary Lambert, portraying him as a liberal. The group is backing Lambert's primary rival state Rep. Marilinda Garcia, who they praise at the end. Lambert has been a weak fundraiser and he'll have a tough time responding. So far no groups have come to Lambert's aid ahead of the Sept. 9 primary. Given that most of this district is in the expensive Boston media market, Lambert better hope he has some rich friends who are willing to led him a hand.
• NY-21: Democrat Aaron Woolf's spot touts him as someone who will stand up for women's rights.
• WV-02: Republican Alex Mooney has a (unintentionally) strange spot. It features people saying how conservative he is, how he'll stand up to Obama, blah blah blah. But one woman takes to time to praise Mooney's record as a state senator.
This wouldn't be remarkable, except that she's talking about Mooney's time in the Maryland Senate, where he served until losing in 2010. Of course, she doesn't mention that. In fact, another woman describes how Mooney "Works for West Virginia, not Washington." Or Maryland. Or New Hampshire, another state where Mooney ran for office.
• Crossroads: Crossroads GPS whales on three vulnerable Democratic incumbents, Ami Bera and Scott Peters of California and Bill Enyart of Illinois. The Bera and Peters' hits are pretty much identical (apart from subbing in each congressman's name and image), going after each man over the national debt. The Enyart spot is all Obamacare attacks.