In Defying the Odds, we discuss congressional elections as well as the presidential race. Campaign finance is a big part of the story.
- The Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund accounted for $3.2 million of the additional spending, with two $1 million+ buys in Steve Knight’s CA25 and Ed Royce’s open CA39 seat, along with another $885,000 in Jeff Denham’s CA10 and $290,000 in Mimi Walters’ CA45.
- New Republican PAC, which has spent over $20 million in the Florida Senate race on ads opposing Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, made its first foray into congressional races around ten days ago with a $370,000 buy in CA45. It followed that up just prior to the weekend with another $600,000 ad buy opposing Democratic challenger Katie Porter.
- Mike Bloomberg’s Independence USA PAC joined the pile-on in CA49, with an additional $500,000 TV ad buy supporting Democrat Mike Levin, bringing the outside spending in the race to just over $4 million, with none of it to the benefit of Republican Diane Harkey.
- The Democrats’ House Majority PAC made a surprise late buy in CA21 this weekend, committing a modest $257,000 to television ads opposing incumbent Republican David Valadao. The buy marks a reversal from several weeks ago, when the DCCC pulled its ad reservations from the Fresno market as they appeared to write off Democrat TJ Cox’s chances of unseating Valadao. The CA21 buy accounted for the bulk of the $511,000 spent by the House Majority PAC in California House races since the previous update.
- Republican Women for Progress, a committee funded largely by LinkedIn co-Founder Reid Hoffman, Wicklow Capital’s Daniel Tierney, but evidently no Republican women, spent $266,000 on ads supporting Democratic candidates in CA48, CA25, and CA50.
