Senate Republicans claim to be breathing easier about the South Dakota Senate race, at least according to NRSC Executive Director Rob Collins.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last week announced an investment of $1 million to try to hold the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, after a succession of public opinion polls showed that race, once considered a sure thing for the Republicans, to be in play. The NRSC, formerly the National Republican Senatorial Committee, countered with $1 million in promised advertising of its own, and Collins told reporters on Thursday that the race was showing signs of improvement for Republicans.
Republican sources said the latest internal polling on the race showed Republican former Gov. Mike Rounds at 39 percent; Democrat Rick Weiland at 29 percent; and independent Larry Pressler at 18 percent, with a second independent candidate, conservative Gordon Howie, at 4 percent. President Obama’s approval stood at 36 percent in this internal GOP survey. The NRSC has sent two field staffers to South Dakota to assist Rounds and help coordinate his ground game.
“We’re still up,” Collins said during a news conference. “Democrats still have a two-step challenge.”
Collins told reporters that Rounds had a lead of 6 to 7 points.
The contest is a three-way race between Rounds; Weiland, a restaurant owner and former congressional aide; and Pressler, a former senator who served as a Republican until Johnson ousted him in 1996. Last week, it appeared that Rounds was faced with a two-step challenge: fending off Pressler from the right and Weiland from the left.
Many older South Dakotans who tend to vote with the GOP remember Pressler as a Republican, and that was eating into Rounds’ support. But Collins said Pressler’s support has “collapsed” over the past week after the NRSC and Rounds went on television with advertising highlighting the former senator’s leftward drift. Pressler has been complimentary of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act.
Reports that Pressler is legally a resident of Washington, D.C., and has been one for several years, also took a toll, Republicans say.
Meanwhile, Republicans say Rounds has responded well to pressure and is running a sharper campaign. The former governor had faced a barrage of criticism from national GOP operatives for overseeing what they described as a lackluster operation that allowed a race to get close that never should have. National Republicans said they’ve seen a marked improvement.
Democrats say Rounds still has plenty to worry about. Television ads from the DSCC are hitting him over a scandal involving a federal visa program administered by the state. During Rounds’ gubernatorial administration, the program became engulfed in scandal, and Rounds has endured relentless attacks, fighting back only recently. Some South Dakota political analysts have said it’s unfair to blame Rounds for what went wrong with the EB-5 visa program.
But many voters are holding him responsible. The DSCC views this line of attack as its best chance to upend Rounds and boost Weiland.
“Last week the NRSC claimed they were up double digits in South Dakota and today they claimed they’re up 6. It’s clear Mike Rounds’ campaign has been engulfed by the EB-5 scandal and it will be his undoing,” DSCC spokesman Justin Barasky said.
