RGA Going Back on Air in Kentucky for Matt Bevin

The RGA pulled ads supporting Bevin about three weeks ago. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Posted October 19, 2015 at 8:49pm

Updated: 9:05 a.m. | Nearly three weeks after pulling its advertising from the Bluegrass State’s airwaves, the Republican Governors Association will go back on the air for the final two weeks of the hotly contested race for the keys to the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion, a source told CQ Roll Call.

On Monday evening, a source close to the RGA said the group sees the race between Republican Matt Bevin and Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway as winnable, and said it will be back on television there through Election Day.
The source said the RGA will transfer $1.6 million back to the state for a television, digital and direct mail campaign attacking Conway. The 30-second spot features a video of President Barack Obama saying “policies are on the ballot” for voters when they are considering candidates.

”Our families can’t afford four more years of the liberal polices of President Obama and career politicians like Jack Conway,” a narrator says. “Can you really trust Obama and Conway to make things better?”

The messaging is similar to lines of attack the group used earlier in the race, such as when it used one online campaign to showcase “just how much Jack Conway has put Obama first and Kentucky last.”

Before its hiatus from Kentucky at the end of September, the group had spent $3 million on six ads to help Bevin. The RGA left Kentucky, in part, over concerns about Bevin’s seriousness about and commitment to the contest — including what it considered lax fundraising efforts and his wariness about putting up personal money.

Most polling in Kentucky has given Conway a slight lead, but the race in this once-blue state that has turned red could be close. The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report /Roll Call changed its rating of the race last week from Tossup to Tossup/Tilts Democratic .