Outside cash tilts Senate contests

Some Democrats see edge narrow

Democrats in races that will help determine control of the U.S. Senate are rapidly burning through their campaign cash, whittling away their financial advantage over Republican opponents as they fend off attacks from conservative groups, according to figures released through Friday.

The spending on both sides underscores the critical role that outside conservative groups are playing as Republicans try to retake the Senate. In state after state, organizations such as Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit linked to industrialists David and Charles Koch, have kept Democrats on the defensive with a barrage of negative ads while establishment-backed Republican candidates raise money and navigate their way through primaries.

In Alaska, the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Mark Begich, spent about as much money as he raised during the first three months of the year, while Dan Sullivan, a Republican candidate and former state attorney general, increased his fundraising and substantially narrowed Begich’s advantage in cash on hand. In Montana, Sen. John Walsh, a Democrat, spent almost three-quarters of the money he raised since January, ending with about $700,000. Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa, the likely Democratic nominee for Senate, spent more than 60 percent of the cash he raised.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., spent only about a third of what she collected through the end of March. But she reserved $2.7 million of advertising in March, according to strategists tracking both parties’ television spending, which will cut deeply into the $7.5 million she reported at the beginning of April.

In Arkansas, Republican candidates and outside groups have spent $4 million on television advertising, more than twice what Democrats have. That has allowed U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, who is expected to be the Republican nominee, to spend less of his cash than U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, who spent more than he raised during the last three months of 2013. (The campaigns said they would not release more recent fundraising figures until next week.)

According to their last campaign-finance reports, Pryor had $4.2 million on hand at the end of 2013, Cotton had $2.2 million at the end of 2013.

Pryor and Cotton’s campaigns have spent hundreds of thousands to run television ads on Little Rock’s six largest stations and have paid extra to have ads run during popular shows or events, according to records the Federal Communications Commission requires the stations to make public.

Since October, Cotton’s campaign has spent $151,065 for 314 Little Rock time slots. His campaign specifically purchased ad time during Sunday football games and Saturday Night Live, two ads that ran during the Golden Globes on Jan. 12 and four ads that ran on New Year’s Eve.

Since August, Pryor’s campaign has spent $283,765 for 580 time slots. His campaign specifically purchased ad time on the Little Rock stations during The Voice and five 30-second ads that ran during the Winter Olympics.

“The spending totals so far show that a lot of Democratic candidates find themselves on the run,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Democratic strategists say their candidates have faced a historic early onslaught of outside spending - about $33 million in all, most of it from Koch-linked groups - without squandering their coffers and while staying, for the most part, ahead of or even with their Republican rivals in the polls.

In the five battleground races where both candidates have reported their totals for the first three months of the year - Alaska, Montana, North Carolina, Colorado and Louisiana - Democrats reported a combined $25.2 million in cash on hand, compared with $12.1 million for Republicans. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had $22 million more, compared with $15.9 million for the Republican committee.

“Up and down the map, Democrats are out polling and out-fundraising their Republican opponents, and we enjoy cash-on-hand advantages at both the campaign and committee level,” said Justin Barasky, a spokesman for the Democratic committee. “We feel very confident that, going forward, this will ensure Democrats have the resources we need to win in November.”

Democratic outside groups, which largely held their fire in the fall, have begun to increase their spending on behalf of Senate candidates while the party moves aggressively to tie Republican candidates to wealthy donors such as the Kochs.

According to media buyers, these Democratic groups spent about $4 million in March, led by Senate Majority PAC, a so-called super-political action committee with ties to the Democratic leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. Republican groups spent about $5.5million.

The Democratic counterattack is being led chiefly by super PACs. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allows super PACS to raise and spend unlimited contributions from big donors, unions and corporations. Those groups are required by law to disclose their donors.

By contrast, Republican super PACs, which have dominated fundraising in the past two elections, appear to be collecting and spending less this time. Instead, Republicans are relying heavily on nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors and whose political activities have come under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service and congressional Democrats.

Several Republican challengers will need to spend more heavily in the weeks ahead to beat back rivals for the party’s nomination or to introduce themselves to voters against Democrats who are already well-known.

In the high-profile Senate race in Kentucky, neither Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, nor Alison Lundergan Grimes, his Democratic challenger, has released recent figures. But during the past six months, Grimes has steadily narrowed her financial gap with McConnell, who faces a primary challenge and attacks from conservative groups that are seeking to unseat him.

In Republican-leaning Georgia, which has an open U.S. Senate seat, the Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn, posted consistently strong fundraising numbers during the second half of last year.

And some Republican candidates are floundering in the hunt for cash.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, a Democrat who has been the subject of nearly ceaseless attack ads from conservative groups since the fall, conserved about half of the cash she raised and began the spring with $8.3 million in hand. Thom Tillis, the Republican candidate backed by the party establishment, spent significantly more than he raised during the first three months of the year. Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina House, began April with just $1 million in cash on hand and is locked in a primary fight.

But in other election matchups, spending by Republican super PACs and political nonprofit groups appears to have more than evened the financial playing field with Democrats.

In Michigan, Rep. Gary Peters, a Democrat running for Senate, faces both a Republican opponent who is partly financing her own campaign and a financial offensive mounted by outside groups. Republican spending there has reached $3.6 million, about three times the Democrats’ spending.

Peters spent twice as much during the last months of 2013 as his leading Republican opponent, Terri Lynn Land, a former Michigan secretary of state. Neither candidate has released detailed fundraising information for 2014. Land said she had raised $1.5 million, and a spokesman for Peters said he would report a similar amount.

Information for this article was contributed by Nicholas Confessore of the The New York Times and by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/12/2014

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