How many more millions will the Kochs waste trying to weaken Louisiana Sen, Mary Landrieu?
Let's superimpose that Karl Rove polling from
earlier today with the amount of money the Kochs have spent in those states. The number in parenthesis is the trendline from earlier this year.
Arkansas
Pryor 39 (36)
Cotton 39 (42)
Mark Pryor's numbers went up, Cotton's went down, and this is now the sixth poll in a row that doesn't show Republicans winning a seat they've already pencilled in as their own.
That rise in Pryor's numbers, in Rove's own polling, comes despite $2 million (and counting) spent by the Kochs.
Colorado
Udall 45 (45)
Gardner 43 (44)
Mark Udall has kept steady despite at least $2 million in Koch attack ads (
first buy,
second buy).
Louisiana
Landrieu 43 (44)
Cassidy 47 (45)
Landrieu's numbers have remained steady, within MoE, despite millions of Koch attack ads. As of February, that number was
$2.6 million. They're still running ads, so that number has only grown since then.
Michigan
Peters 40 (37)
Land 43 (42)
As if mid-March, the Kochs had already spent over
$2 million attacking Gary Peters. And yet his numbers are only going up.
Montana
Walsh 35 (29)
Daines 42 (43)
Rove's own Crossroads, the same outfit who commissioned this poll, has spent several hundred thousand dollars in Montana, a state where advertising is dirt cheap. And yet ... John Walsh is up six points? Way to prove your own ineffectiveness, Karl!
More below the fold.
Yes, unregulated big money shouldn't be in politics. But I want to keep hammering this home: conservatives are spending a shit-ton on ads, and yet they are getting ZERO from them. The entire point of an attack ad is to drive a candidate's support down, and yet nothing here suggests its working. The Kochs may have spent over $30 million thus far this year alone, but they have nothing to show for it -- Democratic candidates aren't bleeding support, and the Affordable Care Act is becoming more popular. It's a lose-lose.
The Dems' nadir came last November in the wake of the disastrous HealthCare.gov rollout. But they're clawing back, and with Obamacare defused as a campaign liability, that only appears to be accelerating.
So yes, let's keep fighting to keep money out of politics, but don't let those Koch millions bring you down. In fact, be happy -- our democracy is not yet for sale, and the Kochs really are pissing their money away.