When the NRCC throws cash into a race, it means they believe the GOP candidate has a real chance to win.
And in the past three days we’ve seen two former longshots come straight into their crosshairs.
On Wednesday we learned of a substantial ad buy on behalf of Bob Gibbs in his race against Zack Space. And today we learned that Bill Johnson has risen to the first tier of the Young Guns program and earned the financial support of the NRCC in commercials against Charlie Wilson.
And it’s all part of the wave.
One year ago, Charlie Cook had Zack Space’s seat listed as Lean Democrat and Charlie Wilson wasn’t even mentioned. Today, Zack Space’s vulnerability has forced Cook to upgrade his race to a toss-up and Charlie Wilson has jumped two tiers to Lean Democrat.
In addition, GOP candidates Tom Ganley and Rich Iott have been able to largely self-fund their races against Betty Sutton and Marcy Kaptur, respectively. This has forced the DCCC to take action in both races, just as I predicted back in February when Ganley jumped from the Senate race to the House.
Ultimately, this is going to be a costly race for both candidates. And that’s bad news for the Democrats. Even if Sutton does win, it will pull resources, both financially and in manpower, that could have gone elsewhere.
Somewhere, Mary Jo Kilroy, Steve Driehaus, Zack Space, and Charlie Wilson are kicking something.
Anyone else think Space and Wilson would rather have the money going to Sutton and Kaptur right now?
All these Ohio races aren’t guaranteed wins. Not by a longshot. But the financial investment in each of them speaks volumes to their winnability. The amazing thing? None of these seats were supposed to be vulnerable. While the wave may not take out all four of these Democrats, at the very least it’s pulling major resources from other Democrat races and contributing to the overall cause of winning back the House.
Let’s keep working to build that wave higher and higher.
