Republican Sen. Pat Roberts
Leading Off:
• KS-Sen, Gov: You know it's a freakin' weird election year when the best polling news for Democrats regularly comes out of Kansas. But yeah, we've got another good survey from the Sunflower State, this time courtesy of Suffolk University. In the intensely watched Senate race, independent Greg Orman holds a 46-41 lead on Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, making this the fifth straight poll to show Orman ahead. And in an additional bright spot, a three-judge trial court ruled that Democrats do not have to name a replacement to take the spot of Democrat Chad Taylor, who dropped out last month.
And here's a pretty amazing black spot for Roberts:
When Roberts' new team took over his foundering campaign three weeks ago, they discovered an operation that hadn't ordered any yard signs and a headquarters that didn't have a computer printer or its own Internet service.
What does that even mean, "its own Internet service"? Were they poaching some neighbor's unsecured WiFi? Using an old dial-up AOL account? Hell, did they not even have Internet access at all? This problem was supposedly "quickly rectified" by the emergency paratroops sent in by the NRSC, but the kind of systemic issues that lead a 21st century campaign to
not have its own Internet service simply can't be fixed.
Meanwhile, Democrat Paul Davis has a similar 46-42 edge on GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. That's the fourth poll in a row to show Davis up exactly 4 points; aside from some strange YouGov polls and a farcical Brownback internal, Davis has been on top for a very long time.
The one slightly annoying set of numbers comes in the race for secretary of state, where Republican Kris Kobach, who has beclowned himself in his frantic, failed efforts to keep Taylor on the ballot, leads Democrat Jean Schodorf 45-40. Other polls from both PPP and SurveyUSA have shown a tighter race, but even these results are far from great for Kobach. If Davis and Orman prevail on Election Day, there's a very good chance they'll sweep Schodorf along with them.
3Q fundraising: On Tuesday night the final fundraising quarter of the 2014 election cycle came to an end. Full reports covering the period from July 1 to Sept. 30 are due for all federal candidates Oct. 15, but as usual, many campaigns leak some or all of their numbers before then.
• IA-Sen: Bruce Braley (D) $2.8 million raised; Joni Ernst (R) $4.5 million raised
• MA-Gov: (Sept. 16 to Sept. 30): Martha Coakley (D) $334,000 raised, $243,000 spent, $266,000 on hand; Charlie Baker (R) $1 million raised, $1.2 million spent, $1.5 million on hand
• AZ-01: Ann Kirkpatrick (D-inc): $800,000 raised
• IL-10: Brad Schneider (D-inc): $1.1 million raised
Senate:
• AK-Sen: Hahah! Alaska Democrats got exactly what they wanted when they filed a request with Maryland tax officials a few weeks ago, asking them to investigate whether Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan properly received a tax credit for declaring his Bethesda home his "principle residence" from 2006 to 2008: a declaration that Sullivan was indeed a proper recipient of those tax breaks. Sullivan's carpetbagging has been the number one hit on him all cycle, and to make matters worse, he declared that he'd been an Alaska resident since 1997 when he filled out a candidacy form for his Senate bid.
You can see how the math doesn't quite work out for Sullivan, which is why his campaign's only response has been to sputter in rage:
A spokesman for Sullivan, Mike Anderson, said in an emailed statement: "Mark Begich's liberal allies have made it abundantly clear he is willing to say or do anything to shamefully distort Dan's record, and this time was clearly no different."
I believe that's called "projection," or maybe just "lying through your teeth." It's a good bet that this latest development will make its way into some more attack ads soon.
• CO-Sen: Rasmussen: Cory Gardner (R): 48, Mark Udall (D-inc): 47 (Sept.: 44-42 Udall).
• IA-Sen: Absentee ballots are much more in demand than they were four years ago: 184,734 voters had requested their ballots as of Wednesday morning. That's nearly 20 percent of the number of total votes cast in the state during the last midterms. Registered Democrats have continued to outnumber registered Republicans by a wide margin: 51.5 percent of these ballots have been requested by Democrats, versus 27.6 percent from Republicans.
Democrats always have a large advantage in Iowa's early voting game, so how do these numbers compare to past elections? Well, that's not an easy question to answer given the vast expansion of the universe of absentee voters over the past four years. In fact, there are two ways of looking at this. The first is to compare Wednesday's statistics to the equivalent date in the 2010 cycle (Election Day – 34 days): 59 percent of absentee requests had come from Democrats and 23 percent from Republicans. So that sounds like a big improvement for the GOP this year! (The equivalent date in the 2012 cycle had numbers closer to Wednesday's—53 percent Democrats, 25 percent Republicans—though even that marks a slippage for Democrats).
The second method is to compare Wednesday's statistics to the day the 185,000 ballot-market was reached in 2010 (Oct. 7). By then, just 50 percent of requests were coming from Democrats and 34 percent from Republicans. Now this sounds like an improvement for Democrats! Put it this way: By the time 95,000 Democrats requested a ballot in 2010, 64,000 Republicans did so. Just 51,000 have done so up until now.
So we can't draw any definitive conclusions from these statistics, other than that there is nothing in them to suggest that Democratic voters are unenthusiastic or staying away from the polls. And check out Elect Project, a great resource for early voting statistics from other states.
• KY-Sen: A new Mellman Group poll for Democratic Alison Grimes has her leading GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell 42-40, with just 3 percent going to Libertarian David Paterson. It's hard to feel very good about these results, though. For one, there are a ton of undecideds, which are likely to be the death knell of a Democrat seeking federal office in dark red Kentucky.
For another, aside from Grimes' prior internal in early September that had her up 1 point, the last public poll to give her a lead was all the way back in June. Of the 15 polls since, 12 have shown McConnell ahead and one had a tie. Mellman's been right before when everyone else has been wrong (Nevada, Harry Reid, 2010), but is he again?
• NC-Sen: No, Thom Tillis isn't popular, and the polling data prove it.
Gubernatorial:
• ID-Gov: This is certainly unexpected. The RGA is spending what they describe as "six figures" in a race that hasn't been on many people's radars until now. The RGA's spot describes Democratic Boise School Board President A.J. Balukoff as a typical tax-loving, liberal politician who would be a "perfect fit for California." (The RGA also recently spent $200,000 in Oklahoma, another heavily Republican state that had been looking safe for Team Red until recently.)
Republican Gov. Butch Otter has never been particularly popular even in this ultra red state. Otter's initial 2006 election was unexpectedly difficult; his 59-33 re-election victory in 2010 was also pretty underwhelming for a Republican incumbent in a friendly state in a wave year. Otter also had a close call in the June primary, beating state Sen. Russell Fulcher by a pretty pathetic 51-44. Otter has been running ads portraying the state economy as humming along but many voters are unhappy with his various budget cuts.
Balukoff has been taking advantage of the apparent voter fatigue with Otter. The Democrat is personally very wealthy and has been self-funding ads since July. There's been very little publicly released polling to indicate if he's having any luck. A September YouGov poll found Otter up 51-33, but Balukoff claims to have polling showing him in the margin-of-error and gaining. Usually it's pretty hard to take a campaign seriously when they say they have a good poll but won't release it, but the RGA's actions suggest that Otter isn't doing as well as YouGov says.
Democrats haven't won the governorship here since Cecil Andrus' landslide 1990 re-election, and this is a difficult state for Team Blue to compete in even under the best of circumstances. But it looks like there may be more to this race than we thought. We'll definitely keep an eye on this contest to see if the RGA and its allies continue to spend here and if Democratic groups start to smell blood and get involved.
• MA-Gov: Most recent polls have shown a tight race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker, with only MassINC's weekly tracking poll giving Coakley a meaningful lead. On Wednesday, the firm joined everyone else, giving Coakley a small 44-41 edge. A week before they had her up 46-36.
• MD-Gov: Gonzales Research finds a much closer race than expected in a contest that, until recently, was seen as an easy Democratic hold. They find Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown leading Republican Larry Hogan only 47-43, down from the 18-point lead they found in June. The pro-Hogan Maryland My Maryland PAC commissioned this poll.
It would be easy to dismiss this as an overly optimistic Republican-friendly poll except for a few telling details. The DGA has already spent $750,000 hitting Hogan, and they just committed to spending another $400,000. Not long ago, it looked like the DGA just wanted to nuke Hogan early so they could move on to more competitive races when it came down to crunch time; well, it's crunch time and here we still are. It's very unlikely that national Democrats would be throwing this much money around this late in the game unless they thought Hogan had a shot here.
Brown's team not only didn't supply a contradictory poll, they didn't even deny that the race is close. His campaign manager declared, "We don't comment on partisan polls, but what we do know is that when voters find out about Hogan's dangerous opposition to common sense gun safety laws they overwhelmingly reject his candidacy." Brown has also been airing negative ads against Hogan for weeks, more evidence that he hasn't put this race away. Brown's role in presiding over the very bumpy state Obamacare roll out may not have damaged him much during the primary but it looks like it could be the source of a lot of his problems right now: Voters disapprove of the roll out by a 51-16 margin.
Maryland is a very blue state and we still expect Brown to pull this off. However, it's becoming clear that Hogan has a lot more fight in him than initially expected. As a result, we're changing our rating of this contest from Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic.
• SC-Gov: Huh. Wednesday brought us two new polls of South Carolina's gubernatorial race, both of which feature Gov. Nikki Haley in the low 40s, thanks to free-spending independent Tom Ervin. Democratic pollster Crantford Research finds Haley leading Democrat Vincent Sheheen 41-37 with Ervin, despite his millions in self-funding, registering just 7 percent of the vote. Winthrop University's numbers show the race further apart, with Haley up 44-34 and Ervin at a dismal 4 percent.
While Ervin may be keeping Haley down in plurality territory, he isn't doing any favors for Sheheen, either. Ervin's a former Republican, but he's no tea partier—he's running a weird centrist campaign that's probably hurting Sheheen as much as it is Haley. Sheheen did very well to come as close as he did back in 2010, when he lost by just 4 points in spite of the GOP wave, but national Democrats haven't shown much enthusiasm for his campaign this time around.
• TX-Gov: A new poll from Texas Lyceum finds Republican Greg Abbott with a 49-40 lead on Democrat Wendy Davis, with Election Day now less than five weeks away. That's not terribly different from a Davis internal released early last month that had Abbott up 46-38, but it's also not very optimistic for Democrats, given how little Abbott needs to do to ensure he crests 50. Indeed, the HuffPo Pollster average (which doesn't yet include this latest survey) already has him at 51-38.
• WI-Gov: Blergh. Marquette's newest poll now has GOP Gov. Scott Walker legging out to a 50-45 lead on Democrat Mary Burke among likely voters, up from a 49-46 edge two weeks ago. Most distressingly, last month, Burke was on top 49-47, so the race has really moved away from her. To make matters worse, it appears there's a serious enthusiasm gap, as she actually leads 46-45 with registered voters.
But if the RV numbers are actually closer to the mark than the LVs, Burke's not letting anything on. The statement her campaign put out in response to this poll didn't take issue with the results or provide any alternative polling of her own. She just said the race "remains too close to call" and lobbed a few attacks at Walker. It would be nice to see some other numbers, though, as the last reputable pollster other than Marquette to test the waters here was PPP, all the way back in April.
House:
• CA-03: It's been a very long time since either national party paid any attention to Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue's race against Democratic Rep. John Garamendi. Logue's hoping to get some help before this race gets forgotten for good: He's released a poll from Moore Information showing Garamendi leading only 45-39. Obama won 54-43 here so it's not out of reach for the GOP in a good year. One big problem for Logue though is that he hails from the rural conservative portion of the district, which doesn't have that much in common with the larger and much more liberal Bay Area part.
• MA-06: On Tuesday, the student-run Emerson College Polling Society released their newest survey, and they find Republican Richard Tisei leading Democrat Seth Moulton 41-39. These numbers are about the same as the margin the Tarrance Group found for Tisei recently. WBUR, the only other non-partisan pollster to look at this contest in recent weeks, found Moulton up 47-39 while two Democratic polls also gave Moulton clear leads. So far, neither party nor their allies have spent much in this expensive district. This indicates that, at least up until now, both sides think Moulton has the edge and are focusing on more competitive races elsewhere.
• ME-02: Well, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) has finally managed to do something non-douchey. After endorsing Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Eliot Cutler, the spoiler candidate for governor, he's actually backing a Democrat in his home state of Maine: Emily Cain, who's running for the open 2nd Congressional District against Republican Bruce Poliquin.
• MN-08: Have Democrats managed to turn things around somehow in Minnesota's 8th? A new DCCC poll from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner finds Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan up a rather comfortable 48-37 over Republican Stewart Mills, despite the fact that Green Party candidate Skip Sandman is taking 7 percent of the vote. This is actually the first poll we've seen here, but just a couple of weeks ago, Nolan admitted that the race was a "dead heat."
So either Nolan's internals were whack, this poll is off-base, or the Democrats' ad campaign has simply been a lot better than the Republicans'. I'm gonna bank on door number three, particularly if we don't see responsive numbers from Mills.
• NJ-03: A new DCCC in-house robopoll finds Democrat Aimee Belgard edging self-funding Republican Tom MacArthur 43-42 in New Jersey's swingy (and open) 3rd Congressional District. That follows an earlier DCCC internal (from GBA Strategies) that had MacArthur up 46-43 and a Stockton College poll that showed the race tied at 42.
But while Belgard offers a great opportunity to pick up a GOP-held seat, South Jersey Democrats are mostly acting like pieces of shit. They've been ignoring Belgard while sucking up to Donald Norcross, the brother of local power-broker George Norcross who's a shoe-in to succeed Rob Andrews in the safely Democratic 1st District. Pathetic and embarrassing, and even Nancy Pelosi's not immune—she'd headlining a $1000-a-person fundraiser for Norcross in two weeks!
And while the 3rd went narrowly for Obama (52-47), the area has almost always elected Republicans to Congress. So it's going to be a tough haul, and it looks like Belgard's going to have to do this one on her own. The polls can't be ignored, though. In a presidential year, and/or with a more supportive local party apparatus, we might call this a pure tossup. But for now, we're moving our rating on this race from Lean Republican to Tossup/Tilt Republican.
• VA-10: Our first hard data out of Virginia's hotly contested 10th Congressional District comes with dueling internals. The pro-Democratic House Majority PAC fired first, with numbers from Victoria Research that have Republican Barbara Comstock up 41-39 on Democrat John Foust, while minor candidates gobble up 4-5 percent. The Congressional Leadership Fund (an outfit run by Saudi lobbyist Norm Coleman) shot back with a survey from the Tarrance Group finding Comstock ahead 46-34, with various third parties taking 7 percent.
Tarrance points out that Comstock is far better-known than Foust, with 87 percent of respondents able to identify her compared to just 59 percent for Foust. I don't understand why pollsters tout this sort of thing because it's not good news for the more recognized candidate. Virginia's 10th, swallowed up entirely by the Washington, DC media market, is an expensive place to advertise, but Foust still has proverbial room to grow.
Indeed, Republican groups have already spent almost $1 million on the race while Democrats have put in just $140,000. Given how few pickup opportunities Democrats have nationwide, it would be surprising if spending didn't even out here. Even if CLF's poll is right, this is a very swingy district (Mitt Romney carried it by a single point), so Comstock doesn't have much if any advantage when it comes to scooping up enough undecided voters to secure victory. Daily Kos Elections currently rates this race Lean Republican, but it may well be headed to tossup status if Democrats play hardball here.
• WA-04: FreedomWorks, which long ago endorsed ex-NFL player Clint Didier in the all-Republican battle in Washington's 4th District, has released a survey from The Polling Company showing Didier with a 35-32 edge over former state Department of Agriculture chief Dan Newhouse. Given the number of undecideds, that's really neither here nor there, but with the establishment rallying around Newhouse, FreedomWorks may just be trying to argue that the race is still an unsettled affair. Daily Kos Elections rates the contest as "Lean Newhouse."
• House: With polls being released in public in so few House races this year, one of the best remaining ways to see what's competitive is by looking at where the national committees and big third party groups are spending ... and also where they stop spending. The list of new cuts by the Dem-friendly House Majority PAC helps us with the latter. (Of course, that's not as clear cut as it used to be: Triage used to mean you're dead, but now it might be a signal to some other group that you're not supposed to coordinate with that they should tap in to the ring.)
HMP's cancellations, worth about $1 million, come in eight races; four seem to be good news for Democrats and four seem to be bad. Offensive races where the HMP is backing out because the Dem challenger isn't getting any traction include IL-13, MI-07, MI-08, and PA-06. Races where they're quitting because Democrats incumbents seem to have things well under control are AZ-09 (Kyrsten Sinema), CT-05 (Elizabeth Esty), NY-18 (Sean Patrick Maloney), and IL-17 (Cheri Bustos).
On the other side of the aisle, Roll Call has a number of new House ad reservations from GOP-friendly groups. There aren't any real surprises. On the Democratic side, we have various expenditures from the DCCC and House Majority PAC.
Other Races:
• AR-AG: The open seat race for attorney general of Arkansas has attracted a good deal of attention from both parties. Democrats have held this post since Reconstruction and it's been a good launching pad for higher office: Notable alumni include Bill Clinton, Gov. Mike Beebe, and Sen. Mark Pryor. Team Blue has had a rough few cycles in the Razorback State but if state Rep. Nate Steel can take the office, he can give the Democratic bench some fresh blood. The GOP has nominated Leslie Rutledge, who served as an aide to former Gov. Mike Huckabee. It's looked like we're in for a competitive contest: A recent PPP poll gave Rutledge a 41-35 lead, while Suffolk had the two tied at 36 each.
On Tuesday, this race took a turn for the weird. Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane, a Democrat, canceled Rutledge's voter registration after he learned she was registered in multiple states. One telling detail is that Rutledge registered to vote in Washington in July of 2008, but voted absentee in Arkansas that November.
If this decision stands, it's not only embarrassing for Rutledge, it could render her ineligible to serve as attorney general. Article 19, section 3 of the Arkansas Constitution states, "No persons shall be elected to, or appointed to fill a vacancy in, any office who does not possess the qualifications of an elector." Rutledge's campaign is pushing back and arguing that Crane's actions were politically motivated: Rutledge says she registered in Pulaski County in May of 2013 and has been voting there ever since. There are a lot of questions left to be answered and it's very likely that this is going to court. But one way or another, this low-key but important contest has just gotten a whole lot more exciting.
Ads & Independent Expenditures:
• AK-Sen: Put Alaska First spends another $565,000 for Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. They recently ran this spot against Republican Dan Sullivan.
• AR-Sen: Three new spots from Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor (here, here, and here). The first is notable: It features the director of a domestic violence shelter criticizing Republican Tom Cotton's vote against the Violence Against Women Act. The second spot has a similar theme, going after Cotton for opposing equal pay for women. The third spot is positive, with small businesspeople praising Pryor. On the GOP side, American Crossroads spends $1,106,000.
• CO-Sen: NextGen Climate continues to tie Republican Cory Gardner to the Koch brothers and pollution. Gardner uses his spot to defend himself against Democratic ads portraying him as an anti-contraception extremist, before talking about his economic plan.
• IA-Sen: The NRSC portrays Democrat Bruce Braley as a tax-loving extremist. On the Democratic side, the Sierra Club spends $1,001,000: They recently aired this spot against Republican Joni Ernst.
• KS-Sen: One of the big downsides to running a serious campaign as an independent is you need to keep to accommodating voters from both parties even when they hold contradictory views on major issues. Republican Sen. Pat Roberts' newest spot hits independent Greg Orman over Obamacare, and features a clip of Orman being evasive when asked about Obamacare. The narrator then accuses Orman of supporting Obamacare, and continues to portray him as an Obama puppet. Republicans have run a lot of these ads already linking Orman to Obama and national Democrats, and they'll run a lot more before Election Day.
Orman uses his own spot to once again portray himself as a true Independent. He addresses GOP ads that say Obama and Harry Reid are the reason for the mess: Orman declares the Republicans are half right, but Mitch McConnell and Roberts are the other half. Orman then pledges to only answer to Kansas. Orman's run a lot of these ads already declaring his independence from petty party politics and he'll run a lot more before Election Day. With Roberts very unpopular, the race may end up coming down to whether the GOP can convince voters that Orman is a secret Obama supporter, or if Orman can successfully portray himself as a bipartisan problem solver.
• KY-Sen: Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell continues a recent ad campaign featuring constituents describing how he's helped them. Also on the Republican side Kentuckians for Strong Leadership spends $1,092,000: They recently aired this spot against Democrat Alison Grimes.
Grimes herself has a new ad starring the Big Dog himself. The spot takes clips of a rally with Bill Clinton, who references a McConnell gaffe where the senator declared it wasn't his job to create jobs.
• LA-Sen: Republican Bill Cassidy portrays Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu as weak on immigration.
• NC-Sen: Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan contrasts her record on education with Republican Thom Tillis'. EMILY's List is also spending another $353,000 against Tillis. On the GOP side, we have a size-of-the-buy for a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce spot: It's running for a hefty $1,438,000.
• NH-Sen: Republican Scott Brown features a clip of a rally with Mitt Romney, where the Mittster characterizes Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen as an Obama lackey.
• OR-Sen: Republican Monica Wehby tells the camera that Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley and Obamacare both suck.
• CT-Gov: Republican Tom Foley accuses Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy of nickel and dimming the state. Also for the GOP, Grow Connecticut manages to cram an impressive number of attacks against Malloy into only 30-seconds.
• FL-Gov: The Florida GOP has a Spanish-language spot narrated by Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera on behalf of his running mate, Gov. Rick Scott.
• GA-Gov: Republican Gov. Nathan Deal features his wife Sandra, a former teacher, praising him on education.
• IL-Gov: Three new spots from Republican Bruce Rauner (here, here, and here). The first continues Rauner's recent ad campaign where he accuses Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn of releasing violent criminals. The second goes after Quinn on job losses. The third pushes back on Democratic attacks on Rauner's pension and minimum wage policies.
• KS-Gov: The NEA goes after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback on education, accusing Brownback of gutting it.
• MA-Gov: With several new polls showing a tight race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker, it's no surprise that national Republicans are airing more ads here. Commonwealth Future, the RGA's well-funded front-group, accuses Coakley of doing nothing to help abused and neglected children who were supposed to have been protected by the Department of Children and Family. The group has already spent $4.7 million in this race.
• ME-Gov: Republican Gov. Paul LePage features his wife Ann talking about his record of helping veterans.
• MI-Gov: The DGA continues to hit Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on education cuts.
• TX-Gov: Democrat Wendy Davis hits Republican Greg Abbott on education.
• WI-Gov: Republican Gov. Scott Walker has two new spots (here and here). The first goes after Democrat Mary Burke on plagiarism, echoing a recent RGA ad campaign. The second ad features a survivor of domestic abuse praising Walker's record when it comes to protecting women.
• AR-04: Democrat James Lee Witt.
• AZ-01: Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick talks about her work to reform the VA.
• FL-02: Freedom Partners spends $143,000 once again tying Democrat Gwen Graham to national Democrats while praising Republican Rep. Steve Southerland's record.
• FL-26: Freedom Partners continues to portray Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia as a corrupt Obama supporter. The size of the buy is $62,000.
• IL-13: Democrat Ann Callis.
• LA-06: Garret Graves, one of the many Republicans competing in the November jungle primary, introduces his family and talks about how conservative he is.
• MI-01: Democrat Jerry Cannon.
• ND-AL: Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer.
• NE-02: The DCCC hits Republican Rep. Lee Terry over his tone-deaf declaration that he would keep his paycheck during the government shutdown. Democrat Brad Ashford goes positive, portraying himself as a pragmatic problem solver and pledging to stop the Obamacare employer mandate.
• NH-01: The DCCC attacks Republican Frank Guinta over some still-unexplained mystery money he received.
• NY-21: Democrat Aaron Woolf.
• TX-23: The DCCC has two new ads against Republican Will Hurd (here and here). The first hits Hurd on education cuts; the second features a wounded soldier accusing Hurd of wanting to cut veterans' benefits.
• WV-03: YG Network ties Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall to Obama: The size of the buy is $336,000. Freedom Partners takes up the other favored Republican attack line here, hitting Rahall on coal: The size of the buy is $108,000.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, with additional contributions from Jeff Singer, David Jarman, Steve Singiser, and Taniel.