(Washington Post) - Roll Call newspaper — Fix alum! — broke the news Tuesday afternoon: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had pulled its TV advertising for the final three weeks in the Kentucky Senate race. That decision effectively leaves Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes on her own and is rightly read as a sign that national Democrats believe the race is effectively over. (The DSCC didn’t not return an email seeking comment on their decision.)
The DSCC’s decision to pull out of Kentucky, a race in which they had spent months insisting was closer than most public polls showed it, is a recognition that in a year in which the Senate map and the national political climate are tilted against them, the party’s best chances to hold the majority now rests in trying to hold onto their endangered incumbents.
One Democratic strategist closely following the Kentucky race insists that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) is still beatable but that Senate Democrats have to prioritize sitting Senators at this point in the election cycle. “The DSCC action is less about the viability of the race, and probably the recognition that, in tough years the priority — in the House AND the Senate — is protecting the incumbents,” said the source. “In other words, defense not offense.”
