Americans for Prosperity has already spent $7 million on ads against Kay Hagan. No, that’s no typo

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/31/whats-kay-hagans-seat-worth-to-koch-brothers-backed-afp-7-million-and-counting/

Readers of this blog know that Americans for Prosperity has spent huge sums of cash on ads criticizing vulnerable Democratic senators up for reelection. But one state stands out from the pack: North Carolina, where the Koch brothers-backed group has already dropped a whopping $7 million+ on the airwaves barraging Sen. Kay Hagan (D).

In Monday's Read In over on Post Politics, Reid Wilson breaks down how much AFP spent in nine Senate races through the end of last week. North Carolina accounts for 44 percent of the more than $16 million the conservative group has shelled out.

So why North Carolina? Well, for starters, there arguably isn't a more crucial race in the battle for the Senate. Republicans need to pick up six seats to win back the majority. On our most recent rundown of the 10 seats most likely to flip party control, North Carolina was -- wait for it -- No. 6.

Secondly, of the four states won by Mitt Romney in which Democratic senators are running for reelection, North Carolina is the most expensive. As we wrote last week when we took a closer look at the Alaska Senate race, air time there as well as in Louisiana and Arkansas, isn't as expensive. Those states have smaller populations, thus less expensive media markets.
(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/31/read-in-monday-march-31-aca-deadline-looms-koch-strategist-hits-harry-reid-in-ad-charting-afp-senate-spending/

On the Airwaves: You've heard a lot about Americans for Prosperity hammering Democratic Senate candidates with early advertising. Here's a look at how much the outside group has spent on TV ads as of the end of last week, numbers they don't have to report to the FEC but were provided by a Democratic outside group watching the ad market:

Alaska (Sen. Mark Begich): $632,897
Arkansas (Sen. Mark Pryor): $1,196,944
Colorado (Sen. Mark Udall): $810,862
Iowa (open seat): $484,431
Louisiana (Sen. Mary Landrieu): $2,923,893
Michigan (open seat): $2,017,624
Montana (Sen. John Walsh): $376,279
North Carolina (Sen. Kay Hagan): $7,270,324 (!!!)
New Hampshire (Sen. Jeanne Shaheen): $699,233
Total: $16,412,487

-- Calendar check: It's only March 31! (AFP has reportedly spent $30 million so far this cycle, but the $16 million figure is just what it has spent on TV in those nine Senate races.)

[enough]

1. Incredible. (nt)

[think]

2. Sigh...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Hope they spend all that- and lose

Given how the numbers- both in terms of popularity and enrollment- are headed in an upward direction, the Koch Tea Party Fox Republicans might not want to bet their life savings on running against Obamacare- but I won't lose any sleep over them losing money on it.

[RobertEarl]

4. TV stations and big media Love it!

They'll be snorting up many lines of Koch from now until November.

[octoberlib]

5. I hope they keep it up

because despite relentless tv ads trashing her, Hagan's poll numbers have improved. It's still extremely close but Hagan has issues , like raising the minimum wage,(overwhelmingly popular with NC voters) on her side.

[Sunlei]

8. raising the minimum wage is an excellent issue for Dems to run on, as everyone knows

republicans are against and even want to remove the minimum wage.

[DFW]

6. My one item on my Christmas wish list

I want Rove, Adelson, Art Pope, and the Kochs to pour about $100 million of their money into LOSING races, where we are hopelessly outspent but win because we have more to offer the voters of the battleground states, and a majority of them realize it.

[Sunlei]

7. republicans waste millions on TV, yet every school child could have had free lunches for a year.

some crap political non-profit 'charity' you republicans run. "Prosperity" for TV ads!