A conservative super-PAC could be upping its game in a key House race in Illinois between tea party Rep. Joe Walsh and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday night that Now or Never, a super PAC that has already spent nearly $2 million on the race, was going to put in another $2.5 million for negative ads against the Democrat. According to its anonymous source, the goal would be “bury Duckworth.”
However, a spokesman for Now or Never told TPM the group is not yet made the final call to fork over the additional $2.5 million. “No final decisions have been made,” spokesman Tyler Harber said. “But we do have the resources and we’re very serious about continuing the fight in Illinois 8.”
One question is whether it would even be possible to buy up that much TV time in the final three weeks of the election.
“I know that the window to buy that kind of media is quickly closing,” Harber said. “But the great thing about a metro area like Chicago, is you’ve got a bunch of broadcast stations and a bunch of cable stations. There is a variety of ways we could spend that money. If we were a couple days out from the election, that would become an impossibility.”
Harber said that Now or Never had heard from “pretty good sources” that Democratic groups were getting ready to come in with more ads to match the amount that has already been run against Duckworth, thus sparking the group’s interesting in raising the level further.
Here is an ad Now or Never has already run against Duckworth, for having served in the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich as state Director of Veterans Affairs. The Democratic governor was impeached and removed from office. He is now in federal prison: “Tammy Duckworth — a Blagojevich pal who supports higher taxes and wasteful spending.”
