Group to yank ads supporting Strickland

A decision by top Senate Democrats Tuesday to cancel nearly $200,000 in TV commercials in Ohio suggests Democrats are increasingly worried former Gov. Ted Strickland will not be able to mount an effective challenge to Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

The Senate Majority Political Action Campaign, directed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, scratched $191,000 in TV commercials on behalf of Strickland that were scheduled to begin next Tuesday in Columbus and Dayton.

The cancelled commercials were but a fraction of the $10 million Reid’s PAC has reserved in Ohio during the next two months.

“You can’t spin it: That’s not good news,” Jennifer Duffy, a Senate campaign analyst with the non-partisan Cook Political Report in Washington, said of the cancelled ad buy. “Now I want to see if and when they cancel the rest.”

Terry Casey, a Republican consultant in Columbus, said the Strickland “campaign has been headed to the I.C. unit and now it’s there.”

But Democrats in Ohio insisted Strickland still can win, particularly if Hillary Clinton defeats Donald Trump in the state.

Pulling the ads is a “huge mistake,” said State Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus, a former state party chairman. “But the nice thing is there is plenty of time to rectify the mistake because Ted Strickland is going to win this race.”

The commercials were cancelled one day after a separate Senate Democratic committee shifted $500,000 from its own TV buy in Ohio to help finance a Strickland TV commercial currently on the air.

Duffy said she “read a lot more into” what Reid’s committee did than the action by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, adding that the “DSCC didn’t pull the money, they moved it. They picked up some of the tab” for Strickland’s own commercial.

“He’s sort of has nobody to blame but himself,” Duffy said of Strickland’s inability to raise huge sums of campaign money. “For somebody who is a former governor and former member of Congress, he has not demonstrated the ability to meet a lot of fund-raising goals.”

The race is believed to be the most expensive in the nation with $33 million from outside groups already spent on web, radio and TV ads.

Michelle Everhart of the Columbus Dispatch contributed to this story.

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