“She’s going to be the focal point of Republican efforts to gain control of the Senate,” said Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for American Crossroads, a “super PAC” that backs conservative Republicans.
It played a role in the 2010 Senate race in Missouri that the GOP won, as well as other congressional campaigns around the country that helped Republicans take control of the House.
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“Control of the Senate is up for grabs. You have a very competitive presidential election and the first re-election campaign for the new Republican House,” Collegio said. “These factors will cause a record amount of money to be spent by conservative and liberal groups. Literally, everything is at stake.”
American Crossroads and its allied group, Crossroads GPS, are the brainchild of Karl Rove, the political guru to George W. Bush, and Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Together they raised and spent more than $70 million last year, not all of its sources disclosed.
They have promised to more than triple that amount on the 2012 campaign.
Among the contests in their sights is McCaskill’s effort to hold on to her seat in the Senate.
Both Crossroads groups already have spent several hundred thousand dollars this year on ads criticizing her.
The ad echoed one from NRSC:
