Leading Off:
• SD-Sen: Let's not bury the lead: For the first time the DSCC just committed $1 million to helping Democrat Rick Weiland in South Dakota. This is an inexpensive state so $1 million can go a very long way here. Larry Lessig's super PAC Mayday also recently committed $1 million to support Weiland. So far the GOP hasn't spent anything here but that may well change now.
Until recently this looked like an easy win for Republican Mike Rounds. In recent weeks, Rounds' EB-5 problem has been getting a ton of attention and quite possibly dragging down his poll numbers. Democrats have accused Rounds of selling off EB-5 visas to the highest bidders, and Rounds has acted very defensive about the issue. Rounds continues to push back: The narrator argues that a California court just ruled that South Dakota had no liability in the EB-5 lawsuit, and that the attacks on Rounds are just lies.
Rounds may hope that voters will just dismiss EB-5 now, but it doesn't look like it will go away that easily. David Montgomery of the Argus Leader takes a look at the ad: Montgomery concludes that this ruling only covered one aspect of the EB-5 matter and that this issue is by no means dead. Montgomery also has a very good rundown of the entire EB-5 situation.
Rounds' problems may have damaged his Senate prospects, but it's not all smooth-sailing for Weiland. A recent SurveyUSA poll shows former Republican Sen. turned independent Larry Pressler overtaking Weiland to become Rounds' main rival. Pressler has a limited budget but is going on the air with a spot pledging he'll only serve one term so he won't be distracted by fundraising.
It seems that Weiland's allies aren't going to just sit back and let Democratic voters flock to Pressler. Every Voice Action, one of the few outside groups to support Weiland until now, has just taken down its commercial hitting Rounds on EB-5 and will go up with an anti-Pressler ad instead. The new spot isn't available yet but the group's president says it will hit him for "voting against Medicare and voting against Social Security (and) the vote he skipped to take a lobbyist-funded junket to Las Vegas." In other words, this strange three-way race is about to get a lot stranger.
Head below the fold for a roundup of ads from around the country
Senate:
• AK-Sen: American Crossroads throws another $956,000 at Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. On the Democratic side, Put Alaska First spends $555,000.
• AR-Sen: The NRSC again accuses Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of changing during his 12 years in Washington. Spoiler alert: They don't think he's changed for the better. Also on the GOP side Tom Cotton offers some platitudes about being a leader while Crossroads GPS spends another $460,000, while Freedom Partners goes up with $458,000.
• CO-Sen: Freedom Partners again portrays Democratic Sen. Mark Udall as a blind Obama loyalist: The size of the buy is $710,000. Also for the GOP, Jeb Bush once again appears in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad, where he says some generic nice things about Republican Cory Gardner. Bush recently did a similar ad in Spanish here.
• IA-Sen: American Crossroads shells out another $730,000 against Democrat Bruce Braley.
• KY-Sen: Crossroads GPS spends $1,216,000 against Democrat Alison Grimes (here and here).
• MI-Sen: AFSCME spends $500,000 for Democrat Gary Peters.
• MN-Sen: Democratic Sen. Al Franken.
• NC-Sen: Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan calls out Republican Thom Tillis for running a spot claiming she would let soldiers die in vain. Hagan describes how she has family serving in the military and will "stand up to anyone when it comes to protecting our military." Also for Team Blue, we find out that a recent NEA spot ran for $1,206,000.
On the GOP side, Crossroads GPS features a 2008 clip of Hagan criticizing then-Sen. Liddy Dole of voting with Bush 92 percent of the time: Hagan declares no one should ever vote with the president that much whether they support him or not. Crossroads then paints Hagan as an Obama drone.
• NH-Sen: Republican Scott Brown defends himself from Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's attacks on his women's health record. Brown describes himself as pro-choice and claims Shaheen is running a smear campaign to hide her support for Obama.
Gubernatorial:
• CO-Gov: The DGA-alligned Making Colorado Great continues to portray Republican Bob Beauprez as an extremist on women's health.
• CT-Gov: Republican Tom Foley accuses Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy of lying about jobs. The spot has several images of Malloy's nose stretching out Pinocchio style, but it (probably unintentionally) looks pretty phallic.
• FL-Gov: The Florida GOP accuses Democrat Charlie Crist of corruption.
• HI-Gov: Republican Duke Aiona features his wife, who talks about Aiona's efforts to lower the cost of living.
• IL-Gov: It's been almost seven years since Rod Blagojevich was removed from office, but Republican Bruce Rauner hopes he can still be used against Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn. Rauner's new ad accuses Quinn of serving as Blago's right hand man and continuing his legacy of corruption.
• MD-Gov: Republican Larry Hogan accuses Democrat Anthony Brown of helping preside over a failing state economy.
• ME-Gov: Independent Eliot Cutler argues Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud both suck on jobs. Michaud goes positive, promoting his work protecting local shipyards.
• MI-Gov: Republican Gov. Rick Snyder defends himself from Democratic attacks on the condition of state schools.
• NE-Gov: Republican Pete Ricketts continues to present himself as a generous businessman.
• OK-Gov: Democrat Joe Dorman hits Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on education.
• PA-Gov: Republican Gov. Tom Corbett portrays Democrat Tom Wolf as dishonest.
• SC-Gov: Democrat Vincent Sheheen goes after Republican Gov. Nikki Haley on education and Medicaid funding.
• WI-Gov: Republican Gov. Scott Walker accuses Democrat Mary Burke of twisting the state's job numbers. Burke's spot goes after Walker's tax cuts, saying they help the rich but do very little for everyone else.
House:
• AZ-02: YG Network does more Obamacare demonizing, hitting Democratic Rep. Ron Barber over it.
• FL-26: The American Action Network is the latest GOP group to portray Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia as corrupt in a new spot that's running in English and Spanish.
• GA-12: Republican Rick Allen goes after Democratic Rep. John Barrow on the debt and Obama. Meanwhile, Center Forward spends $148,000 for Barrow (here and here).
• HI-01: Democrat Mark Takai.
• IL-10: Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider portrays Republican Bob Dold(!) as a conservative extremist.
• MN-08: The DCCC once again paints Republican Stewart Mills as an out-of-touch rich guy who doesn't care about the middle class.
• ND-AL: Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer.
• NH-01: The DCCC continues to hit Republican Frank Guinta for somehow lending his campaign secret money while his personal finances were a mess.
• NY-19: Two new spots from Democrat Sean Eldridge (here and here).
• NY-23: Republican Rep. Tom Reed hits Democrat Martha Robertson over a local power plant, accusing her supporters of trying to shut it down because of their "radical ideas on global warming."
• DCCC: Various pro-Democratic expenditures.
• NRCC: New Republican spots in AZ-01, AZ-02, CA-07, GA-12, IA-03, IL-10, IL-12, ME-02, MN-07, MN-08, NY-01, and WV-03. Only IA-03 is GOP-held.
The AZ-01 ad has gotten some outside attention recently. The NRCC alleges that Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick voted against security along the Mexican border, making it easy for terrorists to sneak in. As Time points out, there's no reason to think this is happening at all. But this isn't the first time the GOP has tied border security to terrorism in its ads and it of course won't be the last.
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