The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce is dropping a flurry of TV ads in key Senate races across the country as we step into the final weeks of 2010 election season. The group has pledged $75 million in spending this cycle — and if the first $2 million is any judge, most of that money is going to help Republicans.
Via the AP:
[The Chamber] has the biggest footprint, spending $1 million in Florida against Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for the Senate as an independent. The chamber has endorsed the Republican candidate, Marco Rubio. The chamber is spending $500,000 in Kentucky against Democrat Jack Conway. The chamber this week endorsed Republican Rand Paul, and it is spending about $300,000 in New Hampshire against Senate Democratic candidate Paul Hodes and $250,000 in Colorado against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
Not all of the Chamber’s support is going to the GOP however. Just today, the Chamber announced it’s backing Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in the special election to fill the late Robert Byrd’s Senate seat. No word yet on whether the group will buy pro-Manchin ads, but some recent polling shows the governor may need the help.
Here now are a sample of the Chamber’s all-negative, all pro-GOP TV ads up across the country at the moment:
The message in the Chamber’s ant-Crist ad is pretty simple: the independent Crist will say and do anything (like, oh, abandoning the GOP) to get elected. Not a complex message there, especially when you have Crist’s tap dancing between his current Democratic-voter friendly views and his past fairly traditional Republican positions. But the spot is truly devastating nonetheless, pairing Crist with such supposed flip-floppers as John Kerry in 2004 and Arlen Specter in 2010. The ad also makes mention of Crist’s infamous/hilarious flip-flop-flip on the health care reform law last month.
The TPM Poll Average shows Rubio leading the three way race with 39.1% of the vote. Crist has 30.6% and Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek has 21.2%.
The chamber’s anti-Jack Conway ad in Kentucky does what pretty much all Republican-leaning ads do this year: Demonize Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic agenda, and then put that message around Conway’s neck like a millstone. That’s probably the right play in a state like Kentucky, where President Obama and the Democratic Congress is extremely unpopular.
The TPM Poll Average shows Republican Rand Paul leading the race 47.2-41.5.
The Chamber’s New Hampshire spot uses the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die,” against Democratic nominee Paul Hodes, who the ad paints as essentially anti-liberty and down on that whole freedom concept. The spot has a distinctly tea party feel to it.
The TPM Poll Average shows Republican Kelly Ayotte leading Hodes 48.7-41.0.
Late Update
Eventually the crack team at TPM tracked down the Colorado ad, which the Chamber seemed unwilling to discuss when I called to ask about it earlier today. We were surprised that the Chamber would want to stay silent about the ad — all told, it’s probably the blandest spot of the bunch. The anti-Bennet ad rips the Democrats over “ObamaCare” and suggests that a vote for more Michael Bennet is a vote for more of those pesky laws (like financial reform, for example) that business groups like the Chamber don’t seem to like very much.
The TPM Poll Average shows Republican Ken Buck leading Bennet 46.6-43.3.
