From the stuff you already know but cringe to see spelled out department, The Atlantic reports today that:
The nation’s largest union will have spent $40 million on the 2010 elections by Tuesday, including $17 million worth of TV, mail, radio and phone calls spread across four Senate races and seven House races, the NEA said today.
The races where NEA is spending are:
- Washington Senate race: Sen. Patty Murray vs. Dino Rossi
- Colorado Senate race: Sen. Michael Bennet vs. Ken Buck
- Pennsylvania Senate race: Joe Sestak vs. Pat Toomey
- Kentucky Senate race: Jack Conway vs. Rand Paul
- Ohio District 13: Rep. Betty Sutton vs. Tom Ganley
- Virginia District 5: Rep. Rom Perriello vs. Robert Hurt
- Colorado District 3: Rep. John Salazar vs. Scot Tipton
- Florida District 22: Rep. Ron Klein vs. Allen West
- Illinois District 17: Rep. Phil Hare vs. Bobby Schilling
- New York District 1: Rep. Tim Bishop vs. Randy Altschuler
- North Carolina District 8: Rep. Larry Kissell vs. Harold Johnson
You’ll notice that all those candidates are Democrats, and that they’re all incumbents (except for Rep. Joe Sestak, who is running for a seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter, whom he defeated in the primary). The strategy, in this rough election year for Democrats, has been to identify the members that matter most and try to protect them.
So much for the Republican campaign spending, this graph from the Wall Street Journal says it all:
