The National Republican Congressional Committe (NRCC) has canceled nearly $320,000 in planned ad buys in favor of Rep. Joe Knollenberg’s (R) reelection efforts in Michigan’s 9th congressional district.
According to numbers obtained by The Hill, the NRCC has canceled its buys in the next two weeks, while preserving an expenditure in the last week of the campaign.
The NRCC canceled one buy from October 14-20 for $150,000, and another October 21-27 for almost $170,000. The preserved expenditure, to run from October 28-November 4, amounts to almost $314,000–just slightly less than the sum the NRCC had planned to spend in the race in the preceding weeks.
The NRCC has been strapped for cash during this election cycle, with financial constraints forcing it to only begin spending on behalf of its candidates as of late. Lackluster fundraising and an embezzlement scandal from the organization’s treasurer left it at a disadvantage compared to its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
Knollenberg faces an aggressive challenge from former state legislator turned part-time professor Gary Peters (D). The Democrat outraised the incumbent congressman in the third quarter, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings released yesterday. Peters drew over $650,000 between mid-July and September 30, while Knollenberg raised just over $500,000. The Republican congressman maintains a substantial advantage in cash on hand, though, holding onto well over $1.9 million in the bank, compared to Peters’s $470,000.
“It’s an indpendent expenditure for a reason; they’ll make decisions as they will,” said Knollenberg campaign spokesman Nate Bailey in a voicemail yesterday. “We’re running a competitive race. We’ve raised a lot of money. we have a strong ground game operation in place, and we have almost $2 million in cash on hand to go fight this month…We hope the NRCC or anyone else joins along in the fight to send Congressman Knollenberg back [to Washington].”
“No amount of spin from out of touch Washington Republicans can cover up the fact that Michigan