Ron Johnson, who has consistently been trailing Russ Feingold in the polls and in fundraising, just got some more bad news this week:
As the National Republican Senatorial Committee rolled back its planned spending on Johnson’s behalf, it wasn’t clear Monday to what extent that would be offset by a new ad buy from a different wing of the same group.
NRSC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek confirmed Monday that the independent expenditure arm of the NRSC was canceling a planned ad buy in Wisconsin of about $830,000, slated to air from Oct. 17 to Nov. 7.
“Given this difficult political climate, we have to adjust reservations and strategy to ensure we are in the best position to protect the majority,” a NRSC aide reportedly said, according to Politico Pro, which first reported the news.
But that doesn't mean that Feingold will have an easy go of it for the last few weeks before election day.
The Democrats are scaling back their help as well. Even worse, dark money has started to flood Wisconsin with their smear ads:
As Senate Republicans and Democrats shift — at least for now — their focus away from Wisconsin, Johnson still stands to benefit from new spending by outside groups.
A new super PAC, Reform Wisconsin Fund, last week announced a major ad buy that slams Feingold for voting to allow partial-birth abortion. That buy amounts to about $365,000 in its first week, according to the fund.
With the Dems scaling back their help and facing a flood of dark money, I am sure that Feingold - and the people of Wisconsin - would be very grateful for any money that the gentle reader can throw his way.