The Senate Majority CAP, the super-chief PAC of Democratic Senators, has injected $ 3 million worth of television commercials into the New Jersey Senate race, where Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is facing a surprisingly powerful challenge from the rich Republican businessman Bob Hugin.
The first advertisement of the Super PAC seeks to establish a link between Hugin and President Donald Trump, who is not particularly popular in Garden State.
That the democratic establishment of the Senate – and do not get me wrong – that is what the PAC is in the Senate majority – spending money, there are two obvious proofs:
1. Menendez is dramatically overtaken on television by Hugin, who has injected $ 24 million of his own money into the race, and Democrats feel compelled to put all equals on par. (Another pressure point: Menendez is a former chairman of the Democratic Senate's campaign committee, which means that if he needs money from national donors spent to save him, he is spending money from national donors to save him.)
2. Democrats are worried.
Most polls suggest that Menendez is comfortably ahead. (Menendez's average lead is 7 points.) But Menendez still has some negatives after the trial he faced in the face of corruption charges. (The trial, which lasted 11 weeks, ended with a suspended jury and the Department of Justice refused to try again.) And New Jersey – because it's not its own Media market and is instead covered by Philadelphia and New York City – a state hard to make known to politicians.
Of course, all these facts do not change the underlying reality: Democratic senators spend $ 3 million in New Jersey, which they can not spend, for example, in Tennessee, where they do not spend money. Former governor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, is attempting to swim upstream against the conservative nature of the state. Or in Arizona, where Democratic Representative Kyrsten Sinema is trying to win the seat of retired Republican Senator Jeff Flake.
Point: Of course, there is a lot of money in the Senate races. But make no mistake: it's a finite sum. And the money spent in New Jersey could mean a lost opportunity in a state where Democrats could play the offensive.
