NRSC Weekly Rundown: PETA ❤️ Tester, NRA Slams Bredesen, McCaskill’s Dark $$$ and more!
And here’s this week’s edition of the NRSC Weekly Rundown:
#MTSen: Jon Tester loves to talk about Montana’s hunting tradition when he’s on the campaign trail. But a new report from Fox News shows that according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks records, “Tester hasn’t had a hunting license in six years. He last had one in 2012 – the same year he was last on the ballot.” Shortly after the Fox News report was released, Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter and blasted Tester as a “phony,” and urged Montanans to elect Matt Rosendale.
#NVSen: President Trump made his way to Las Vegas last night to support Senator Dean Heller and blasted Jacky Rosen for refusing to debate. The President told Nevadans, “Jacky Rosen is bought and paid for by her donors 100%. She doesn’t even want to do a debate with Dean. She doesn’t want to debate. I said, ‘Hey Dean, when’s the debate?’ and he said, ‘She won’t debate me.’ That’s not good.” It’s no surprise Rosen doesn’t want to face Nevada voters, since she’s accomplished nothing in office except voting in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies.
#MOSen: At a stop in St. Louis this week, Claire McCaskill told a group of supporters that her campaign needs more volunteers in places like Ferguson, saying that her campaign offices “feel depressing.” And an Associated Press story underscores her problems on the campaign trail generating enthusiasm among her base. At a campaign event this week, McCaskill told supporters that she “can’t take anything from a lobbyist” even though she ranks as the third largest recipient of lobbyist cash in all of Congress. And another dark money group run by former Enron executive John Arnold is spending $700,000 to influence Missouri elections according to a report from the Missouri Times. In the height of hypocrisy, McCaskill even went as far as citing “dark money” as the reason she’s voting no on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’snomination. But, as has been well documented, McCaskill doesn’t really oppose dark money, only dark money spending that is against her.
#NDSen: North Dakota voters are noticing the stark differences between Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer when it comes to accessibility. As one local official told the Bismarck Tribune after a parade over the weekend, “I had people ask ‘Where’s Heidi Heitkamp? Kevin shows up, not Heidi.” Yikes! The Trump administration’s efforts this week to overturn the job-killing BLM flaring rule puts a spotlight on Heitkamp’s failure to stand up for North Dakota’s energy producers and the thousands of hardworking people who rely on the industry for their livelihood. Heitkamp likes to brag about putting North Dakota first, but when given the chance, she was the deciding vote to keep the Obama-era regulation in place, forcing the job producers that have turned North Dakota into an economic powerhouse to deal with millions of dollars in unnecessary regulatory costs. And after Cramer released a new ad this week touting his efforts to repeal the decades-long oil export ban, Heitkamp and her allies went into a complete meltdown, demanding that only Heitkamp could be responsible for passing the crucial legislation. But North Dakota voters know that when it mattered most, Kevin Cramer was fighting for them while Heitkamp was busy following Chuck Schumer’s orders.
#FLSen: Radical Massachusetts liberal Elizabeth Warren is coming to the aid of her buddy, Bill Nelson, sending emails to voters in a desperate attempt to gin up excitement for Nelson’s lackluster reelection campaign. But this shouldn’t shock anyone since Nelson hasn’t been the moderate he claims to be for quite some time. In fact, he’s been a loyal supporter of Elizabeth Warren’s radical liberal agenda, voting in lockstep with her 86% of the time. With a record like that, it’s no wonder the extreme left wants Bill Nelson to keep his job. And this must be why Hillary Clinton’sSuper PAC, Priorities USA Action, announced it’s spending millions of dollars to try to elect the Andrew Gillum-Bill Nelson ticket. Extreme liberals are all too willing to help Nelson because they know he will work hand in hand with the far left to take Florida in a dangerous direction.
#WISen: Turns out neither hiring the Clintons’ “go-to-fixer” nor paying off her former staff can bury Tammy Baldwin’s mishandling of the opioid crisis at the Tomah VA. The Washington Free Beacon took a deep look this week at Baldwin’s efforts to cover up her failure to act on the crisis until months after a Marine died from an overdose. According to the report, Tammy Baldwin was the “only member of Congress from Wisconsin to receive an inspector general report in 2014 detailing abuses at the Tomah VA facility” and refused to take action until the scandal became public. WISN also published an in-depth account of not only Baldwin’s failure to act, but of the extreme lengths she went to cover up her wrongdoing.
#TNSen: This week, Politico released a new story that includes video of Phil Bredesen reiterating his support for taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. This isn’t the first time Bredesen’s vehemently pro-abortion record has gotten him into hot water. Earlier this year, the Daily Caller blasted him for supporting taxpayer-funded abortions of babies with Down syndrome. Bredesen’s week got worse from there, as he released an ad attempting to tout his 2nd Amendment credentials and claimed the NRA had given him an A rating. But the NRA endorsed Congressman Marsha Blackburn and went out of their way to correct the record with the chairman of the NRA’s Political Victory Fund releasing a statement saying, “Phil Bredesen is a ‘D’ rated candidate, and he will not protect our constitutional rights in Washington, D.C. Tennesseans should not be fooled by his false and misleading campaign ads.”
NEWS AND NOTES:
Fox News: Dem Sen. Tester campaigns on hunting, hasn’t had license in 6 years
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a red state Democrat running for re-election in one of the closest Senate contests this year, has campaigned as a big hunting proponent, sending out mailers to voters that show him on his farm with his gun in hand. But according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks records reviewed by Fox News, Tester hasn’t had a hunting license in six years. He last had one in 2012 – the same year he was last on the ballot. Records dating back to 2002 indicate that the agency had no records of Tester having a hunting or fishing license for 12 out of the last 16 years. READ
Roll Call: Trump Calls Heller A ‘Champion,’ Slams Opponent ‘Wacky Jacky’ Rosen
Trump called Heller on to the stage, where he hailed the president’s time in office. “Mr. President, it’s a pleasure to work with you and putting Nevada back to work,” Heller said, while hailing the state of the economy. Trump continued heaping praise on Heller after he left the stage, saying he had been a “champion” for conservative causes and helping military veterans. The president urged the raucous and friendly crowd to get out to the polls on Election Day, yet another sign that he views the coming midterms as a turnout battle. “You got to get out for the midterms,” Trump roared. “Don’t be complacent. … It’s like, if someone has a cold, we don’t have a majority.” READ
CNN: Arizona Senate: Kyrsten Sinema’s anti-war group blasted ‘U.S. terror,’ depicted soldier as skeleton in 2003 flyers
One flyer for the February 2003 event read: “You can help us push back U.S. terror in Iraq and the Middle East.” Above the text there was a cartoon depicting a group of protestors striving to halt the progress of three skeletons, one dressed as a soldier, another dressed in a top hat holding a dollar bill and another dressed in a suit. The flyer listed the website for Sinema’s group and an email of a local anarchist group that also participated. READ
Politico: Robert Menendez’s political fight for survival
Menendez is being forced to fight to keep his seat. Hugin’s relentless negative ad campaign and deep pockets, combined with Menendez’s unpopularity among New Jersey voters, are making the race closer than most anticipated. Now, national Democrats are putting resources into a state that normally would not be in play. READ
WFB: NRA Demands Tennessee Dem Retract Ad Featuring Old Rating
The National Rifle Association demanded Phil Bredesen, the Democratic nominee in the 2018 Tennessee Senate race, retract an ad touting an outdated rating from the organization. “Phil Bredesen is a ‘D’ rated candidate, and he will not protect our constitutional rights in Washington, D.C.,” Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA’s Political Victory Fund, said in a statement. “Tennesseans should not be fooled by his false and misleading campaign ads.” READ
The Hill: GOP in striking distance to retake Franken seat
The Star Tribune/MPR News Minnesota poll found that Smith, who replaced former Sen. Al Franken (D) following his resignation in January, has the support of 44 percent of the likely voters polled. Another 37 percent support Housley, while 15 percent of those surveyed say they remain undecided, according to the poll. READ
Salem News: GUEST COLUMN: Trump Jr. : Sherrod Brown is no friend to my father’s agenda
Sherrod Brown is clearly not that kind of politician. But Congressman Jim Renacci is — which is why my father endorsed his candidacy for senator. Unlike Brown, Renacci is a successful businessman who knows what it takes to continue the momentum of the Trump agenda. Ohio’s future rests in the hands of its voters, not the phonies in Congress. Let’s not let Brown thwart my father’s agenda and destroy Ohio’s progress in the process. READ
Associated Press: Trying to Hold state Trump won, McCaskill feels pull to the left
“It is no small thing that people of this state voted for this president by 20 points,” Hawley said during a stop in Columbia. “Quite frankly I think she’s forgotten where she’s come from.” Republicans view the contest as one of their best chances of flipping a seat in the Senate, where the GOP has a slim 51-49 majority, and polls show it’s a toss-up. McCaskill is among 10 Democratic incumbents seeking re-election in states Trump won — some by wider margins than Missouri. READ
###