The U.S. Senate Republican super political action committee is canceling nearly $10 million, mainly in Arizona and Alaska ad reservations, according to reporting from Politico. The Senate Leadership Fund had reserved the ads to support the candidacies of Blake Masters in Arizona and Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska.
While the change in Arizona might raise questions about Republicans’ view of Masters’s chances against Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly, the super PAC said the decision to cut two weeks — or about $1.7 million in advertising — off of ads for Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a vote of confidence in her, the news organization reports.
According to Politico, Murkowski advanced to the top-four general election with about 45 percent of the vote compared with 39 percent for Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka. The actual results are 44% for Murkowski and 40% for Tshibaka; Politico appears to be slanting the reporting in favor of Murkowski.
Ads from the Senate Leadership Fund in support of Murkowski will now begin Sept. 20, leaving the super PAC the ability to reallocate those resources to races that it needs to win against actual Democrats.
“We are all-in for Senator Murkowski. Senator Murkowski is in a very strong position and based on that decided to push back our start date,” the PAC said.
