Mitch McConnell is putting more money into Alaska to save his endangered ally while Blake Masters remains abandoned in Arizona.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s super PAC dropped nearly $12 million in new spending on competitive races in key battlegrounds — but none of that spending is for one of the most competitive races of all: GOP rookie Blake Masters versus Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly in Arizona.
McConnell’s allies in Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Alaska will each claim a portion of the pot from the Kentucky lawmaker’s Senate Leadership Fund, according to new numbers out Tuesday, while Arizona venture capitalist Masters remains abandoned by the top elected Republican in the country.
In Alaska, GOP incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski will receive nearly $1 million in support from McConnell’s PAC as she fends off a competitive challenge from Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who is running with an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
The cash infusion to Alaska comes after recent polling in the race shows Murkowski in a dead heat to keep her seat against Tshibaka, who has pledged not to support McConnell for another term in Senate leadership.
The additional support for Murkowski also comes after McConnell canceled $1.7 million in Alaska ad buys and pulled $8 million from Masters in Arizona last month. The decision to do both at the same time only served as a smokescreen to hide McConnell’s true Senate ambitions: Maintain a minority he can control instead of an anti-establishment majority that threatens his leadership perch.
Earlier this month, McConnell axed the rest of his super PAC’s money set aside for Arizona, canceling another $10 million from what polling by the Trafalgar Group shows is a 2-point race.
“The cancellations mean that the GOP’s leading super PAC won’t be spending any money in Arizona, one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country,” Axios reported last week.
Read Full Article on TheFederalist.com
