Outside Groups Helping Vulnerable House Democrats

By Scott Bland  //  July 13, 2012 | 11:31 a.m.

Democratic outside groups, resigned to being outspent once more by their Republican counterparts, are trying to focus on spending their resources smartly this cycle. To that end, two prominent Democratic-aligned advocacy groups are putting early money behind TV ads backing some of the most vulnerable House Democrats ahead of the general election stretch run.

Patriot Majority USA and Center Forward, two non-profit issue advocacy organizations, have spent over $750,000 betewen them backing Reps. John Barrow, D-Ga., Ben Chandler, D-Ky., Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., on TV over the last month. According to a Democratic source tracking the ad buys, Center Forward put approximately 1,200 gross ratings points behind ads applauding each member for opposing the Ryan budget. Patriot Majority USA aired similar budget-themed ads supporting Barrow, Chandler, and Matheson with smaller buys -- about 790 GRPs for Barrow, 740 for Chandler, and 630 for Matheson.

The groups also backed West Virginia Republican Rep. David McKinley with small buys.

Democrats are pleased with the help those endangered candidates are getting from outside, and it stands in contrast to the GOP outside group spending we've seen in the House this week. American Action Network, poised to be the major Republican outside player in the House this cycle, spent over $300,000 on the Republican primary runoff in North Carolina's 8th District this week, and the YG Action Fund, another GOP outside group, spent over $380,000 on the intra-party battle.

AAN has invested in several million-dollar national campaigns supporting large numbers of Republican incumbents, including a $1.2 million effort announced on Monday, but nothing as focused as what Patriot Majority USA and Center Forward have done to help a few Democrats over the past month. There are certainly exceptions - one is Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, who got some early help from Crossroads GPS for his member-versus-member matchup against Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell. Part of the reason could be that a lot of the most vulnerable GOP members, like Illinois Rep. Robert Dold, are in expensive media markets where it is difficult to get bang for your buck. Also, this could all change tomorrow. GOP groups are going to flood the House landscape with TV ads again this cycle. But so far, it appears that Democratic issue advocacy groups have been quicker to boost their most vulnerable incumbents on TV, perhaps to try to inoculate them against a certain flood of attack ads later this cycle.

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