Hotline Sort: Extreme Makeover, Campaign Edition

By Julie Sobel  //  September 19, 2012 | 8:09 a.m.

Welcome back to Hotline Sort. Check out The Hotline's latest Senate Race Rankings, George W. Bush shows up in a Tim Kaine ad, Tommy Thompson says his campaign was broke after the primary, and Jindal and Santorum hit Iowa.

11) Sal Pace, the Democratic nominee in Colorado's 3rd District, released an ad showing him helping his father around the house -- but the Denver Post reports that it's not actually his dad's house. The onscreen tag line on the ad: "Real life."

Speaking of misleading advertisements, Republican Andy Barr, who's out with an ad featuring coal miners protesting President Obama's coal policies. Only problem: One of the coal miners is actually a coal executive.

10) Hmm. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are joining in a campaign in Iowa to oust a judge who ruled for same-sex marriage in the state.

Both Republicans are considered potential 2016 presidential candidates if Mitt Romney loses.

9) If you were wondering where Tommy Thompson has been lately: The Wisconsin GOP Senate nominee said his campaign was "broke" after the August 14 GOP primary, forcing him to spend a lot of time raising money over the past weeks.

8) A new University of Connecticut-Hartford Courant poll of the Connecticut Senate race shows Democratic nominee Chris Murphy leading GOP nominee Linda McMahon 37 percent to 33 percent, inside the poll's margin of error. The poll found a large number of voters -- 30 percent -- still undecided 7 weeks out from Election Day.

Meanwhile in Connecticut -- the New London Day has a McMahon bankruptcy story from the 1970's:

Bankruptcy records located at the office of the National Archives and Records Administration in Massachusetts show Linda and Vince McMahon facing a total $955,805 in claims in 1976 from 26 distinct creditors.

In her two U.S. Senate campaigns, Linda McMahon, a Republican, has often told the story of how she went from personal bankruptcy to building the family business, World Wrestling Entertainment, into a global brand. But she has declined repeated requests to release any documents pertaining to the bankruptcy filing.

7) A new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad in North Dakota hits GOP nominee Rick Berg on Medicare, saying his plan would immediately raise prescription costs for seniors and replace guaranteed benefits for others with a voucher.

6) Tim Kaine releases two new ads in the Virginia Senate race this morning -- and George W. Bush makes an appearance: One touts the fact that Kaine worked with both Bush (as governor of Virginia) and President Obama. The other emphasizes the "middle ground" he seeks between Obama and Virginia GOP Senate nominee George Allen on the Bush tax cuts.

And a new survey dropped in the race today: A new Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News poll of the Virginia Senate race shows Kaine leading Allen by 7 points -- a result that differs from other recent polls of the race showing the two contenders in a dead heat. (The poll has an unusually Democratic sample of +11, potentially explaining the discrepancy.)

5) Romney's campaign is raising huge amounts of money but during the conventions, they didn't have access to much of it because it was only available during the general election period. So they took out a $20 million loan to tide them over until after the convention, when they could start using funds earmarked for the general election. The campaign has begun paying back the loan, but still owes $11 million. 4) Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Obama, is up with an ad using the clip of Romney's "47 percent" comments. It's the first time the fundraiser has made it into paid advertising. 3) Mitt Romney, both in an attempt at damage control and as a campaign pivot, is out with an op-ed in USA Today where he concedes that government has "a role to play" in the helping struggling Americans. "Under President Obama, we have a stagnant economy that fosters government dependency. My policies will create a growing economy that fosters upward mobility," Romney writes. "Government has a role to play here. Right now, our nation's citizens do need help from government. But it is a very different kind of help than what President Obama wants to provide." 2) New polls out early on Wednesday show Obama opening up a significant lead in Wisconsin, but the race for the White House is within the margin of error in two other critical battleground states, Colorado and Virginia, Steve Shepard reports:

The CBS News/New York Times/Quinnipiac University surveys show that Obama has erased Romney's advantage in voters' perceptions of which candidate would do a better job handling the economy.

1) Don't miss The Hotline's latest Senate Race Rankings! The five seats most likely to flip: Nebraska, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

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Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
Steve Shepard, Executive Editor
Julie Sobel, Editor
Kevin Brennan, Deputy Editor


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