RNC Pulls Ads from Ohio Senate Race

The big political news in the US is the decision by the Republican National Committee to cut back on the TV advertising it will buy in support of the Senate campaign of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine. This means the RNC doesn’t see much hope of holding the seat. Since Mr. DeWine is still doing better in the polls than Rick Santorum (R-PA) or Conrad Burns (R-MT), the RNC is effectively ceding three seats to the Democrats in the Senate. The reason is simple; of the seven races with GOP incumbents that are in play, they only need to hold one or two to keep the Senate.

The election is in 20 days, and the polls don’t look good for the Busheviks or the GOP, which aren’t the same thing. However, their interests coincide in keeping the Democrats from achieving a majority in either chamber. If the party of the donkey can take either or both, it will have subpoena power and control of the legislative agenda in that chamber. The last thing the Republicans want is to spend the last two years of the Bush administration answering questions under oath while their pet projects die in committee.

Thus, they have retreated from fights in Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania to throw more resources into Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee and Rhode Island – states where the GOP incumbent is vulnerable. Additionally, they are hoping to knock off sitting Democratic Senator Bob Menendez in New Jersey, the only race where the opposition could lose a senate seat. Odd how they can accept “cutting and running” in the US but not in other places where withdrawal is strategically the soundest move they could make.

This firewall approach also frees up money for races for the House of Representatives, where a 15-seat loss would give the Democrats control and where estimates are as many as 30 seats could move that way. Because a few Southern Democrats are in the wrong party, a bare majority may not be enough to really derail the White House. Thus, keeping the Democratic majority in the lower chamber to a handful is important to the Republicans.

A quick review of spending by the Washington Post shows that the GOP was buying ads in 29 congressional districts over the week-end, 26 of which are GOP held. The Democratic National Committee was on the air in 30 districts, only 3 of which were theirs. From this, two things are clear. First, the GOP is playing defense, which is always bad in politics. Second, about 400 seats in the House are so gerrymandered that they aren’t competitive at all. If a voter lives there, turning up on polling day is largely an empty ritual.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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