Elections

With GOP Senate majority at risk, group starts last-minute money drive to save it

By William Douglas

wdouglas@mcclatchydc.com

October 25, 2016 10:14 PM

Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidates Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, left, and Democrat Katie McGinty take part in a debate at Temple University in Philadelphia, Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. Matt Rourke AP
WASHINGTON

Democrats will regain control of the Senate by winning five to seven seats in next month’s elections, a nonpartisan political publication predicted Tuesday.

The projection by the Cook Political Report came as a powerful super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said it will funnel $25 million into six close Senate races in hopes of stemming down-ballot damage caused by Donald Trump’s sagging presidential campaign.

The Senate Leadership Fund said it will spend money in Pennsylvania, where incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey is locked in a close race against Katie McGinty; North Carolina, where Sen. Richard Burr is in an unexpectedly close contest with Deborah Ross; and Missouri, where Sen. Roy Blunt is trying to fend off challenger Jason Kander.

The fund’s intentions were first reported by Politico.

The fund also plans expenditures in Nevada, where Republican candidate Joe Heck and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto are campaigning to fill the vacancy created by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s retirement; Indiana, where former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is facing Rep. Todd Young; and New Hampshire, where Sen. Kelly Ayotte is running against Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Tuesday called the Senate Leadership Fund’s plan a “panic button” moment.

“From New Hampshire to Nevada, self-serving GOP Senate candidates failed to stand up for their constituents while also making Donald Trump’s rise possible,” DSCC Communications Director Sadie Weiner said in a statement. “They used the same immoral compass to determine whether standing with or separating from Trump would help their careers.”

Earlier Tuesday, the Cook Political Report predicted that some of the endangered Republican Senate incumbents won’t survive the political damage done by the leaked 2005 “Access Hollywood” video of Trump crudely bragging about groping women.

“As such, we are increasing the range of expected Democratic pick ups to five to seven seats,” said the assessment written by Cook Senior Editor Jennifer Duffy. “This means that we feel that the prospect that Democrats will have at least 51 seats is greater than the odds of a tied Senate, or of Republicans somehow holding their majority.”

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Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former 2016 Republican presidential candidate, emailed his supporters Tuesday seeking contributions to aid embattled GOP Senate candidates. Kasich has cut commercials and personally campaigned for Senate and House Republican candidates.

“Democrats are just four seats away from winning a majority in the U.S. Senate, but we can stop them,” Kasich says in the contribution pitch which seeks donations of $10 or more. “At least half a dozen campaigns are too close to call and we need to do all we can to win them and hold our majority!”

Kasich will use some of the money received to write checks to vulnerable GOP Senate candidates, John Weaver, a Kasich adviser, told McClatchy Tuesday night.

“We’ll cut the maximum checks that we can to the Senate races,” Weaver said, adding that the rest of the donated funds will go to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.