Testing Trump, national cash floods another special election
Democrats stayed out of the Pennsylvania special election until this week, when the DCCC reserved
$236,000 on TV ads for just a two-week flight.A Western Pennsylvania House seat that backed
President Donald Trump by 20 points became the latest special-election battleground this
week.
After months of shadow-boxing in the otherwise solidly Republican district, investments this
week by both the DCCC and the NRCC signal the race between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican
Rick Saccone is more competitive than recent history would suggest.
The NRCC has reserved more than $1 million on ads on broadcast and cable TV stations
to boost Saccone in the race to replace former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.).
Murphy resigned last October, after reports surfaced that the anti-abortion lawmaker had
an extramarital affair and allegedly encouraged his lover to terminate a pregnancy.
The DCCC's investment is smaller, but both committees are signaling that they would make
major investments if the race is close between now and the March 13 election.
The NRCC's ad reservations begin on Monday and run all the way through March 13.
But a source familiar with the buy said that the NRCC expects to spend more over that period
than what's currently on the books.
Several other Republican outside groups are also involved � including Congressional
Leadership Fund, the 45Committee and Ending Spending, a group founded by the mega-donor
Ricketts family.
Congressional Leadership Fund alone has reserved $1.6 million in ads, beginning Friday.
Trump has already appeared in the district, endorsing Saccone and calling him �special�
during an official speech billed as a discussion of the economy.
Democrats stayed out of the fray until this week, when the DCCC reserved $236,000 on TV
ads for just a two-week flight, beginning next Tuesday.
The race in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District is the seventh House special election
since 2017 � Republicans held five seats vacated by GOP members, while Democrats retained
their only open seat � but just the third in which the DCCC has actively competed.
The party spent more than $5 million to help boost Democrat Jon Ossoff's unsuccessful campaign
in last June's special election for a suburban Atlanta House seat and made a more modest,
$380,000 investment in an at-large Montana seat.
GOP candidates retained those seats by narrow margins.
The NRCC, meanwhile, has been more active.
It spent nearly $7 million in Georgia, $1.8 million in Montana and made low-six-figure
expenditures in ruby-red districts in Kansas and South Carolina that the party also held.
The Pennsylvania seat, which covers much of the southwestern corner of the state, is an
uphill climb for Democrats.
Both Trump and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 58 percent of the vote there.
Murphy ran unopposed in both 2016 and 2014; he won 64 percent of the vote in 2012, when
he had a Democratic opponent.
Lamb, a former federal prosecutor, is trying to cast himself as a bipartisan problem-solver
who is critical of both parties.
Earlier this month, Lamb told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he would not support Nancy
Pelosi as the Democratic leader, citing a �need [for] new leadership on both sides.�
source politico





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