Super PAC Aligned with Senate G.O.P. Cuts Off New Hampshire TV Ads
By DAVID BAUDER
Published: February 7, 2010
In a move that is likely to cost the Republican Senate campaign in New Hampshire of Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire about $3 million in advertising, the campaign of Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has decided to cut off all future ads featuring the candidates in their own state. The move, which the New York Times reported this week, is part of the Republican National Committee’s decision to withdraw from the Republican presidential primaries after a string of embarrassing primaries in which Republican candidates were forced to compete with super PAC ads that attacked them but which had little or nothing to do with the candidates.
The decision to break with the long tradition of making such ads a permanent fixture in campaigns comes as New Hampshire Republicans, for reasons that have not been fully explained, have decided to limit their campaign spending on the state’s television airwaves.
That decision has the potential to help the Richardson campaign in New Hampshire, which is largely dependent on its television ads in the critical state.
According to the New York Times:
The Republican National Committee adopted a formal policy late last year to limit the spending of outside groups on Senate primary campaigns to $5 million and on the general election campaign to $3 million, with restrictions on expenditures of $250,000 per election.
The decision meant that Republican candidates running in Senate primaries and elections in all 50 states could no longer spend directly on advertisements in support of their primary opponents, although they are free to spend their own money on them.
But now Republican candidates running for the Senate or governor of New Hampshire, according to the New York Times, say that they are going to limit their spending on ads in their state contests to $2.5 million, an amount that would exceed the amount they spend in the Republican presidential primaries. That may seem like a lot of money, but some candidates in New Hampshire spent no money in the presidential primaries.
Meanwhile, Richardson’s campaign is saying that they will continue to spend $6 million on his reelection campaign and $4 million on ads in New Hampshire that will run through the end of this year.
While many observers have criticized the decision by the RNC to impose a $5