We crossed the two-week mark and ads, cash, and the Clintons are descending upon North Carolina. With the race virtually tied and early voting beginning today, groups from both sides are spending and releasing ads to make their final case.
NC viewers saw 10,800 ads last week alone in #NCSEN. That's 1 every minute in USA's costliest race. http://t.co/tlMJSIzM8C #CharObs #NCPOL
— Jim Morrill (@jimmorrill) October 23, 2014On the Hagan side, the League of Conservation Voters are hitting Tillis over his environmental stances, even using the dreaded Koch brothers as their boogeyman. The two ads are part of a $400,000 ad buy.
One ad that was played pervasively when I went down to North Carolina hit Tillis over abortion and Planned Parenthood; Hagan needs to continue to do this to keep women voters on her side. Nationally, women are beginning to break for the GOP.
Another ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee features a woman who calls Tillis’ record on women “horrifying.” This is part of a massive $9.1 million ad buy the DSCC made last August and runs until all the ballots are counted on Election Day.
On the other side, the Tillis campaign released this ad slamming Hagan over allegations that her family’s business profited after receiving stimulus money; a bill she voted for while in the U.S. Senate. According to the Washington Free Beacon, it contributed to her 37 percent rise in net worth since her 2008 win over then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Additionally, NRA, Freedom Partners Action Fund, and Crossroads GPS all hit Hagan over Second Amendment issues, voting with Obama 95 percent of the time, and the controversy surrounding stimulus cash injections to her family’s business.
Abortion, the environment, gun rights, corruption, and Barack Obama’s policies–all issues meant to consolidate base support, which both sides have done quite well. Hagan is leading by 3 points in the latest D+7 PPP poll, but it noted that Hagan and Tillis are each garnering equal shares of the Democratic and Republican vote in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, a Gravis poll released around the same time of the PPP poll found that Tillis was leading Hagan by 5 points based on a sample of 1,022 likely voters.
That’s probably why Freedom Partners Action Fund, a PAC associated with the Koch brothers, is chipping in $6.5 million for the last two weeks of campaigning in the Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Alaska Senate races.
Hagan has outraised the Tillis campaign, but he’s been able to haul in a respectable amount of campaign cash to fill his war chest as the 2014 elections come to a close. Overall, Republicans across the country have seen a surge in fundraising in the final weeks of the campaign, with eight GOP candidates outraising her Democratic opponents for the first time.
We shall see how the Clinton factor plays into the North Carolina race as well; the former Secretary of State plans to make a pit stop in the Tar Heel state this weekend. As for Tillis, Gov. Romney is coming down to help him out next week.
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