DAVID EGGERT
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is canceling planned TV ads for the final two weeks of Michigan’s race, a sign that the party is turning its focus to other states in its drive for the Senate majority.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled $950,000 in ads for the weeks of Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, according to a political operative who tracks ad spending. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gary Peters has consistently led former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a Republican, in most polling.
Some other outside groups, too, previously bailed on Michigan, further suggesting it has fallen out of reach for Land.
Republicans are hoping to net six seats to control the Senate. A Republican has not won a Senate seat in Michigan since 1994, though Democrat Carl Levin’s decision to retire rather than seek a seventh term improved the GOP’s chances.
Ron Bonjean, a consultant to the NRSC’s advertising campaign, said other outside allied groups have Michigan “well covered” with ads and added that the group could still make a significant investment in the contest.
“We will be making more decisions on the race during the next four weeks and strongly believe Terri Lynn Land will be a U.S. senator on Nov. 4.”
The Land and Peters campaigns declined to comment on the committee’s decision, which was first reported by The Hill newspaper.
Land and her allies spent $18 million on advertising through September, while Peters and his supporters spent $14 million, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. Only two other states — North Carolina and Georgia — drew more Senate advertising than Michigan through Sept. 29, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The Detroit News and a TV station released a poll Monday that showed Peters leading Land 44 percent to 35 percent, with a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points. A poll released Thursday by the Detroit Free Press and TV stations also showed Peters up 9 points, 42 percent to 33 percent, with a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Both polls showed that voters viewed Land more unfavorably than Peters and she lagged behind among likely female voters.
“Land is slipping in the polls as the campaign on behalf of Peters has driven her negatives though the roof,” said Tom Shields, president of Marketing Resource Group, a Michigan-based GOP political firm that released its own polling Tuesday that also had Peters in the lead. “She has a lot of ground to make up in four weeks.”
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Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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