Hotline Sort: Mourdock's Newfound Moderation
Welcome back to Hotline Sort. Obama releases a two-minute ad making the case for his re-election, Berkley and Heller debate tonight, Democratic outside groups are spending in the Arizona Senate race, and the Connecticut GOP scores a ballot victory.
11) The Connecticut Supreme Court sided with the state GOP, ruling that their candidates, including Mitt Romney and GOP Senate nominee Linda McMahon, should appear on the top of the ballot (we noted that Republicans were suing for the top ballot line back in August).
10) And Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy is out with a new attack ad in the Connecticut Senate race. The spot features him talking about his middle class roots, his jobs plan, and his tax plan. "But Linda McMahon's tax plan? It gives her a $7 million tax cut," he says. "And it cuts programs for Connecticut's middle class. And Medicare for seniors."
9) In New Hampshire's gubernatorial race, Republican Ovide Lamontagne and Democrat Maggie Hassan are neck and neck in a poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for the New Hampshire Democratic Party: Hassan edges Lamontagne 48 percent to 46 percent.
8) It'll be another week or so before outside groups start airing House ads in Philadelphia's expensive TV market, but the National Republican Congressional Committee is beginning a tough, lower-cost effort against Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick's opponent today, launching robocalls and online ads tying Democratic attorney Kathy Boockvar to convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Boockvar doesn't have a direct connection to the case, but she and her husband had a law practice together, and her husband represented a witness in the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, while several other groups connected to him have done advocacy on Abu-Jamal's behalf.
An excerpt from the robocall script: "The husband-and-wife law firm of Boockvar and Yeager has represented one of the leading activists for Mumia Abu-Jamal - and Boockvar's husband was a lawyer for a witness to the murder who accused the cops of pressuring her. ... Last year, a group tied to Boockvar's husband, held an event at the Constitution Center honoring Mumia Abu-Jamal. The cop killer called into the event from prison."
The NRCC expects to contact between 200,000 and 300,000 people in Pennsylvania's 8th District with the calls and related online ads. Groups may be waiting to hit TV in Philadelphia (and Chicago, for that matter), but House campaigns there are still heating up, especially in what could be Democrats' best pickup opportunity in Pennsylvania.
Rep. Jim Matheson accused Republican candidate Mia Love of taking a slash-and-burn approach to the federal budget, hurting police and college students, while Love painted Matheson as a big-spending, pro-government Democrat in their first debate Wednesday. "There's two different directions we can take," Love said. "My opponent is supporting Barack Obama. Which [means] everything ends up with bigger spending, more borrowing and more debt. I've got the support of Mitt Romney [who will] make sure we champion the private sector so you can have a job." Matheson countered that he has taken a pro-business approach in Congress, which is why groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Businesses, which typically support Republicans, have endorsed him.
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