Do the national Republicans appreciate the extent to which this is beginning to make Republican Bill Sali look ever more like a seriously at-risk candidate in a heavily Republican district?
Word up today that yet another massive buy on Sali's behalf from a national Republican committee - at a time when national Republican money has been pulled from some states - and that Vice President Dick Cheney will pay yet another another visit to the 1st district, once again to help Sali. There seems to be no bottom to the generosity of the national Republicans and allied groups (hello, Club for Growth) on this race - by election day, their independent expenditures on Sali's behalf will approach the total campaign expenditures of Sali and Democrat Larry Grant taken together. What the national Republicans will spend in the last month of this campaign, in fact, probably will exceed Grant's total spending (which has not been shabby for a Democrat) all year. That's in addition to the Club's central underwriting ever since last fall of much of Sali's campaign treasury.
Gee, you'd think these guys didn't have confidence in Sali to do his own thing. Which raises the question: To what extent is Sali doing his own thing?
It suggests two more questions too. (more…)