It’s Rove/Summers vs. Bloomberg/King in the final week

On Friday the DSCC declared that they are leaving Maine’s airwaves in the US Senate race as of Tuesday. They will no longer be running their anti-Charlie Summers ads. This follows the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee which stopped running their anti-Angus King ads in mid October, the Sierra Club which stopped running their pro-King ads last week, and the US Chamber who ran their last anti-King ad on October 22nd.

This exodus probably means these groups see the race as settled. Indeed, the numbers I have heard in the past week have shown King with a steady high single-digit to low double-digit lead.

That said, there are still two outside groups who have yet to pull their money in support of their candidate. Michael Bloomberg, through Americans Elect (the group that pulled the King campaign out of a death spiral), is still heavily on air. And the evil empire of Karl Rove, through Crossroads GPS, still has a heavy final week supporting Summers. Plus, both King and Summers have purchased solid airtime through Election Day.

Perhaps these two powerhouses of politics are seeing something the other groups are not. Perhaps Crossroads thinks it can reignite a King slide or maybe Americans Elect is fearful of a Summers surge. Certainly Karl Rove and Michael Bloomberg do not waste money on races that are settled.

However, if either of these groups pull out in the next few days, you know the race is done.

Posted by Ethan Strimling