Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is being counted on by Democratic Party to hold his seat as it tries to hold on to the majority in the US Senate. To that end, it has reserved election season advertising time in Brown’s state.
According to Politico, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has booked over $2M worth of time in three major Ohio markets: Cleveland, Dayton and Youngstown. The article pegged the value at $2.28M.
Politico believes that more cash may flow into the state in the near future as well, aimed at the state capital Columbus.
Republicans were actually crowing about the expenditure, which they said shows that Brown’s seat is not as safe as the Democrats would have people believe.
On a national strategic level, the congressional committees use their warchests offensively to try to take seats away from the opposition party and to contest open seats; and defensively to protect incumbent seats believed to be endangered. Any money spent by DSCC in Ohio is money it cannot spend elsewhere – so even if Brown’s opponent, Josh Mandel, is unable to defeat him, he can do the Republican Party a favor by putting up a good fight and pulling Democratic resources away from other battleground contests.
RBR-TVBR observation: This practice of booking time months in advance is testimony to the flood of cash from PACs that the professionals on Capitol Hill see on the horizon, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. The congressional campaign committees have all been making reservations to assure that they are not shut out when the electoral chessboard is approaching the endgame.
