As first reported by The Washington Post, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is abandoning Retread Ted Strickland. In addition to the DSCC, media buying sources are reporting this morning that Senate Majority Pac is also cancelling their scheduled ad buy in Ohio.
Strickland, who lost 350,000 jobs as Governor, has struggled to beat back criticism of his failed tenure and superfluous spending.
The news of Democrats abandoning Strickland falls on the same day the NRSC launched a new TV ad in Cleveland and Columbus, “On The Road.”
In case you missed it –
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Roll Call: “Still, Democrats have grown increasingly concerned about Strickland’s candidacy. The campaign has struggled to raise money and has badly lagged behind Portman in most public polls.”
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Cincinnati Enquirer: “…the DSCC ad campaign was slated to start on Sept. 13, but the first week of ads has now been cancelled.”
- Cleveland Plain Dealer: “The Senate Democrats’ campaign wing has canceled about $500,000 worth of television ads next month on behalf of Ted Strickland, who has fallen behind in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, sources said.”
And from The Washington Post:
Democrats delay ad spending on Ohio Senate race
The Democratic Party’s national Senate campaign arm has canceled more than a week of television ads that were set to run next month in the key battleground of Ohio, where former governor Ted Strickland (D) has struggled to gain traction against incumbent Sen. Rob Portman (R).
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had reserved advertising time on Ohio TV stations starting Sept. 13. Now, according to political ad trackers in both parties, the national Democrats won’t launch that campaign until Sept. 22.
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The move spurred chatter among Republican strategists that national Democrats were abandoning Strickland, whose campaign has been pummeled by a relentless barrage of ads from Portman that disparaged his tenure as governor last decade.
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Strickland had raised $7.1 million and began the final months of the campaign with a fraction of Portman’s resources, just $3.7 million.
The incumbent has leveraged that edge by defining Strickland as the governor who lost more than 350,000 jobs in his single term in office, with the ad broken down by region to show how many jobs were lost in certain regions of the state.
Strickland recently tried to rebut that with his own ad in which he repeats the allegation: “They say I lost jobs and drained the rainy-day fund,” the ex-governor says to the camera, then going into a lengthy explanation of the state’s dire straits during the Great Recession.
Some Democrats in Washington privately bemoaned the Strickland ad for repeating Portman’s allegation.
According to RealClearPolitics summary of public polling, Strickland has not held any lead in the race against Portman since early May. In the past five public polls, Portman’s lead has ranged from 5 percentage points to 15.