Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has lost more than $1.1 million in airtime that the National Republican Senatorial Committee had reserved for this month, in a move that suggests the GOP views his chances for re-election are slim to none.
The NRSC had planned to launch an ad buy in Wisconsin on Oct. 17, but recently decided to cancel the reservations, a spokeswoman confirmed to The Hill on Monday.
“We are proud to support Ron Johnson in several ways,”Andrea Bozek was quoted as saying. “We are confident that he will have the necessary resources to highlight his manufacturing experience which is in stark contrast with Sen. Russ Feingold.”
Johnson, who trails his Democratic challenger by 9.7 percentage points in the latest RealClearPolitics state-level polling average, continues to receive outside support from two groups — the Reform Wisconsin Fund and Let America Work PAC — and had an estimated $5.75 million cash on hand at the end of July.
In a statement to Politico, Johnson spokesman Brian Reisinger said the Wisconsin Senate race “remains as tight as ever” and accused Feingold, who spent 18 years in the Senate, of wasting “millions of dollars on misleading ads with nothing to show for it.”
Despite cancelling its own advertising reservations that were supposed to begin at the beginning of October, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee still plans to launch a $2 million ad buy in the Badger State on Oct. 11 in support of Feingold.
A Marquette Law School poll released late last month showed Feingold carrying a 6-point lead over Johnson among registered voters in the battleground state. Democrats will need to pick up four Senate seats to regain control of the Senate if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency and five if Donald Trump wins.
