ICYMI: GOP Senate candidates thrash each other ahead of fight for majority [POLITICO]

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POLITICO: GOP Senate candidates thrash each other ahead of fight for majority
By Natalie Allison
March 14, 2022

Key Points:

• Democrats running for Senate are still holding their fire in primaries. Republicans are stuck in the Thunderdome.

• GOP candidates are already pummeling each other in monthslong advertising free-for-alls, fights intensified by unprecedented television spending.

• The parties’ approaches in money spent and messaging could hardly be more different so far, as is the mere number of contested races: For Republicans, there are more than a dozen states where GOP candidates are attacking each other in bids for Senate nominations, while Democrats have unresolved primaries in just two key states — neither of which have turned vicious.

• The difference is especially pronounced in Pennsylvania… GOP candidates there have dropped a record-shattering $35 million on TV — the vast majority coming from Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick, the leading Republicans, whose camps are framing the other as a “liberal RINO” and “Wall Street insider,” respectively.

• “They’re doing what I want them to do, which is kick the crap out of each other,” said J.B. Poersch, president of the Senate Majority PAC.

• Oz and McCormick began spending millions of dollars in December on advertisements…. By January, the two camps were already running negative ads against each other for a May 17 primary — to the glee of Democrats.

• “Is that potentially problematic for Republicans? Absolutely,” Poersch said. “They are certainly running arguments that would work against the other in the general.”
  
  
• Even Senate Republican leaders are engaged in a public power struggle. That clash has unfolded the past two weeks as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, unveiled his 11-point GOP platform.
  
  
• It’s an unpleasant complication for the GOP.

• “I don’t think it’s particularly helpful,” said Gregg Keller, a Missouri-based GOP strategist, of the intense primary fights unfolding in key swing states.

• Senate Republican leadership’s failure to entice potential top-tier recruits such as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu means the GOP will likely have nominees starting with lower name recognition… a risk when running against established incumbents.

• “We’re very fortunate that our primaries right now are between candidates who are just focused on their attributes, their vision for the future, and not attacking each other,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chair of the DSCC.

• Lengthy, high-dollar primary fights pose another headache for Republicans: While they’re burning cash to fight for nominations, Democrats in many of the same battleground states are stockpiling resources.

• Democratic incumbents with solid fundraising operations are on the ballot in several key states — Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire and Georgia — and are spending money now defining themselves ahead of the general election. In North Carolina and Florida, Democrats Cheri Beasley and Rep. Val Demings, respectively, cleared their primary fields early on.

• A Republican making it out of a tough primary this spring or summer may very well get “socked with $2 million by a Democrat who’s been pooling their resources throughout the primary season,” Keller said.

• Another GOP operative familiar with Senate campaigns… pointed to ways Republicans have made it harder on themselves this cycle — the recruiting losses, failing to clear primary fields, bickering over a party platform and attacking each other in top swing states while Democrats tell their own stories.

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