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| Clockwise from top left: Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, all Democrats, are facing challenges from Republicans generously aided by outside conservative groups. Credit Clockwise from top left: Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images |
Democrats in races that will help determine control of the 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 like Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit linked to the conservative billionaires David H. and Charles G. 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.
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Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, spent only about a third of what she collected through the end of March. But last month, Ms. Landrieu reserved $2.7 million of advertising time, according to strategists tracking both parties’ television spending, which will cut deeply into the $7.5 million she reported at the beginning of April.
“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.
The Democratic counterattack is being led chiefly by super PACs, the groups legalized after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision to allow big donors, unions and corporations to raise and spend unlimited contributions. By contrast, Republican super PACs, which have dominated fund-raising 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 Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, nor Alison Lundergan Grimes, his Democratic challenger, has released recent figures. But over the last six months, Ms. Grimes has steadily narrowed her financial gap with Mr. 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 Senate seat, the Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn, posted consistently strong fund-raising numbers during the second half of last year.
N.Y. TIMES
President Obama deplored on Friday what he called a Republican campaign to deny voting rights to millions of Americans as he stepped up efforts to rally his political base heading into a competitive midterm campaign season.
Mr. Obama accused Republicans of trying to rig the elections by making it harder for older people, women, minorities and the impoverished to cast ballots in swing states that could determine control of the Senate.
“The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago,” Mr. Obama said in a hotel ballroom filled with cheering supporters, most of them African-American. “Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote.”
Republicans in some swing states have advanced new laws that go beyond the voter identification requirements of recent years. Among other things, state lawmakers are pushing measures to limit the time polls are open and to cut back early voting, particularly weekend balloting that makes it easier for lower-income voters to participate. Other measures would eliminate same-day registration, make it more difficult to cast provisional ballots or curb the mailing of absentee ballots.
Over the last 15 months, at least nine states have enacted voting changes making it harder to cast ballots. A federal judge last month upheld laws in Arizona and Kansas requiring proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a passport, leading other states to explore following suit.
Sponsors of such laws have said they are trying to prevent voter fraud and argue that Democrats overstate the impact of common-sense measures in a crass and transparent effort to rile up their most fervent political supporters.
Mr. Obama said nothing about a compromise idea presented to him in Texas this week by Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former United Nations ambassador. Mr. Young proposed bridging the divide over ballot security by putting photographs on Social Security cards, which are issued to all citizens.
Former President Bill Clinton embraced the idea, but the White House did not. “We haven’t had a chance to review it,” said Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary.
