Mary Landrieu abandoned on airwaves
At least on the television airwaves, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is facing what's perhaps the end of her political career alone.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, super PACs and nonprofit groups, which together supported Landrieu's general election campaign with more than 19,000 TV ads worth millions of dollars, have effectively abandoned her during her runoff against Republican Bill Cassidy, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from Kantar Media/CMAG, an ad tracking service.
Groups backing Landrieu have aired fewer than 100 TV ads since Nov. 5, with most of those coming from the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
That's less than 1 percent of the 14,000 TV ads that have aired during the Landrieu vs. Cassidy runoff, which became necessary when no candidate earned 50 percent of the Election Day vote on Nov. 4.
Several conservative groups, meanwhile, have blasted Landrieu with nearly 6,000 ads since she advanced to the runoff.
Almost all of the ads have contained messages that attack Landrieu rather than promote Cassidy.
Leading the way among pro-Cassidy groups: the National Republican Senatorial Committee (which has aired more than 1,800), Koch brothers-backed super PAC Freedom Partners Action Fund (about 1,350), super PAC American Crossroads (nearly 1,100) and the National Rifle Association of America Institute for Legislative Action (nearly 900).
Cassidy's own campaign has aired about 5,000 TV ads, besting the 3,000 ads that Landrieu's campaign has run through Monday.
That stands in stark contrast to the first stage of the election, when Landrieu and her allies sponsored nearly two-thirds of the more than 76,000 TV ads that ran through Nov. 4.
Related: Slow start to Landrieu's runoff campaign
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Buying the Senate 2014. Whether Republicans control both chambers of Congress squarely depends on Senate races in a handful of states. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
