One Week Left - Inside Report On Hot Senate Races
Batten down the hatches.
You will see a barrage of ads, headlines, direct mail, and telephone campaigning in the next week that will dazzle even the most dedicated political observer. And all this may very well determine who controls the U.S. Senate for the next few years.
From insiders in the two key Senate races affecting our area, I have learned the following information.
Strategists in the Bob Casey campaign for Senate say the apparent frontrunner will take nothing for granted and offer an ad blitz that could set a record for the final week of a campaign. Casey’s focus will be on Rick Santorum, but you can expect some more mellow advertising in the final days. Prior to this, the Casey campaign has focused on Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, but Casey’s campaign will blitz statewide.
Insiders in the Rick Santorum campaign cite that Santorum has always been a strong closer and they feel they are narrowing the gap. Santorum is said to be happy with the final theme in his campaign called “gathering storm”, where he accents the war on terror. Experts, like Terry Madonna, the pollster, suggest that he is bucking a tidal wave of resentment over the war in Iraq. Madonna told this reporter, ” I don’t quite understand why he would take this tack when it is something other Republican are running away from. I can’t figure it out.” Madonna’s Keystone Poll from Franklin and Marshall College will be released on Wednesday.
In New Jersey, strategists for both parties in South Jersey are pleading with the Senate candidates to spend more time in the Southern counties. In key statewide races in the past, the South Jersey counties haver made a real difference. If Tom Kean, the Republican, and Robert Menendez, the Democrat, are that close, the southern counties could make a difference.
The theory holds that the two will split the nothern counties, and duke it out in the south. South Jersey voters are less inclined to be part of party machinery, and are known for their fierce independence.
One Democratic operative told me, “Whoever takes South Jersey will win this election.”
Cash on hand is very important in these Senate races. Both Casey and Santorum have two million dollars plus. Numbers from Kean and Menendez are unclear, but national party “soft money” groups are pouring on the commercials for both sides.
