NRSC Shifts Resources to Six States

Roberts, left, greets Moran, the NRSC chairman, at an event in their home state of Kansas. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Photo)

Posted October 10, 2014 at 11:35pm

Updated, 9:04 a.m. | TOPEKA, Kan. — With less than four weeks until Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s independent expenditure arm is shifting resources to increase its investment in six states, including South Dakota and Georgia.

The NRSC has moved $1 million to South Dakota, plus another $1.45 million to Georgia.
In South Dakota, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a
$1 million
television ad buy this week, on the heels of tightening poll numbers that showed its candidate, Rick Weiland, gaining ground. In Georgia, a
new poll
suggests a runoff is likely.
The NRSC also is upping its investment in four other states: Alaska, Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire. Those four states represent an expansion of the map for the GOP into states where Democrats were favored to win earlier in the cycle.

The committee will spend an additional $1 million in Alaska, $1.5 million in Colorado, $1.25 million in Iowa and $1.2 million in New Hampshire.

“These additional investments are part of our overall strategy to win and build a new Senate Republican majority,” said Ron Bonjean, a consultant to the NRSC’s independent expenditure unit.

Conspicuously absent from that list is Kansas, where GOP Sen. Pat Roberts is in a tight race with independent Greg Orman. The NRSC has not yet spent funds to help Roberts. NRSC Chairman Jerry Moran, also a Kansan, suggested in conversations with reporters Thursday in Topeka that the party might do so soon. Also missing is North Carolina, where Democrats are overwhelmingly outspending Republicans, and NRSC has not yet reserved air time for the final two weeks before the election. Republican Thom Tillis has narrowly trailed Sen. Kay Hagan in all public polls.