CNN

Washington (CNN) – Call it the New York-23 effect: Both the Democratic and Republican congressional re-election committees spent more money than they took in last month.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported Thursday that it raised $3.76 million in October, but spent $3.98 million. A similar story from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which said it brought in $3.4 million last month, but spent $3.6 million.

So where did the money go? Both committees infused campaign cash into the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district.

The race, to fill the seat left vacant when Republican congressman John McHugh stepped down to become Secretary of the Army, turned into a three-way contest between official GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava, Conservative Party candidate Dough Hoffman, and Democrat Bill Owens.

Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) – House Republicans are criticizing three Democrats for voting in favor of their party's health care reform bill in a new weeklong TV ad buy.

The 30-second spots are airing on cable television and target Reps. Vic Snyder of Arkansas, Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and John Spratt of South Carolina.

Ken Spain, communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said this early ad buy is an indication of what Democrats should expect to see in the lead up to the 2010 elections.

"Democrats are getting a taste of what next fall is going to feel like when they are going down to defeat thanks in part to the statements made by their liberal colleagues," Spain said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Congressional Democrats won the money war in September.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Monday that it doubled its Republican counterpart in fundraising last month, bringing in $7.05 million to bring its total to $14.7 million in the bank.

The National Republican Campaign Committee brought in $3.4 million in September and now has $4.3 million cash on hand. This is the fourth straight month that House Republicans have topped $3 million, which spokesman Paul Lindsay called one of the "encouraging signs."

"Our continued and steady improvement in grassroots fundraising is just one of the many encouraging signs that the policies of a Democrat-run Washington are mobilizing Americans to take action and support our efforts," Lindsay said in a statement.

Senate Democrats had similar success last month. Last week, they announced they had outraised the National Republican Senatorial Committee $5.9 million to $3.2 million in September.

The NRCC tweet before it was removed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The National Republican Congressional Committee has removed a tweet Tuesday that linked to a video comparing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Adolf Hitler.

The tweet, sent out Tuesday morning on their official Twitter account, read: "Funny Video: Moonbattery: Hitler Reacts to ObamaCare Maneuvers http://bit.ly/2mOvZ7 #Pelosi". It comes the same day the NRCC released a petition on their site to "Fire Nancy Pelosi."

The tweet immediately drew strong criticism from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "House Republicans have gone way too far. The NRCC's despicable promotion of a video comparing Speaker Pelosi's effort to reform health insurance in America to Adolf Hitler's extermination of millions is a shocking new low that must be condemned," said DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. "Republican Leader John Boehner should order NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions to immediately remove this vile Tweet and apologize."

NRCC spokesman John Randall said Tuesday the group had made a mistake. "We obviously made an error in linking to this video and it has been taken down," said Randall.

This tweet comes on the heels of a controversial NRCC statement last week that called on Gen. Stanley McChrystal to "put [Pelosi] in her place" on the topic of Afghanistan.

Follow Eric Kuhn on Twitter @KuhnCNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House Democratic and Republican campaign committees Friday each reported raising more than $3 million last month, but Democrats maintain a significant cash-on-hand advantage over the GOP one year before the midterm elections.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it raised $3.3 million in August, and currently has just over $10.7 million in the bank. Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee reported collecting about $3.2 million last month, leaving it with a cash-on-hand balance of $4.2 million.

Even though the DCCC is carrying more than double the debt of the NRCC - $4.7 million to $2 million - Democrats ended the month with a stronger bank balance of more than $6 million, compared to the GOP's $2.2 million.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Republicans are trying to pressure Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Wisconsin, to oppose his party's approach to health care reform in a new television commercial that begins airing this week in the Green Bay market.

The ad seeks to tie Kagen to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and uses footage of the Wisconsin Democrat responding to a question on health care posed by - and caught on camera by - a Republican campaign staffer.

This is the first ad on health care that the National Republican Congressional Committee has run this year. NRCC spokesman Ken Spain would not reveal much the GOP was spending on the commercial, but he did characterize it as a "significant buy" and noted it would run for one week.

Script after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) – The National Republican Congressional Committee came to the defense of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer who arrested black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., attacking President Obama for saying Wednesday night the officer 'acted stupidly.'

In a statement targeting several House Democrats from Massachusetts, NRCC communications director Ken Spain said, "This is certainly a questionable rush to judgment coming from a president who hasn't exactly been quick to call out unconscionable behavior by a merciless foreign dictator or gotten his facts straight before advocating a trillion-dollar mistake to address our ailing economy."

"Is it really presidential for him to cast harsh judgment of a law enforcement official without all the facts?" said Spain.

The statement calls on Massachusetts Democrats to say whether they agree with the president's assessment. The National Republican Senatorial Committee also launched a Web ad Thursday asking whether it was appropriate for Obama to reach a judgment on the matter after he himself admitted he did not know all the facts.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Republicans will target freshman Rep. Tom Perriello in a new television commercial that criticizes the Virginia Democrat for his recent vote in favor of controversial energy reform legislation.

The 30-second political ad will begin airing Wednesday in the Lynchburg and Roanoke media markets and marks the first time the House GOP campaign arm, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), has used President Obama in a commercial in the 2010 election cycle. It is scheduled to run for one week.

The TV ad is part of a larger public relations campaign by House Republicans to criticize Democrats for supporting the bill that the GOP claims will result in a tax increase and stunt job growth.

NRCC official Ken Spain told CNN that voters in 13 additional congressional districts will hear radio ads or receive telephone calls criticizing their Democratic congressmen for voting in favor of the energy legislation. The bill passed late last week by a slim 219 to 212 margin, largely along party lines with 44 Democrats joining the GOP leadership in voting against it and eight Republicans crossing over to the Democratic side to support it.

Congress is on break for the Fourth of July holiday this week and most lawmakers are back home meeting with constituents and attending town hall gatherings.

The Democrats being targeted by the NRCC include: Ohio Rep. John Boccieri, Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher, Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, Tennessee Rep. Bart Gordon, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, Illinois Rep. Deborah Halvorson, Indiana Rep. Baron Hill, Ohio Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey, Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder, Ohio Rep. Zack Space, and New Mexico Rep. Harry Teague.

The NRCC's new tv spot has a Mission Impossible theme.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Republicans have launched a coordinated public relations blitz against 17 congressional Democrats that seeks to tie them to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her accusations that the CIA misled Congress about the interrogation of terror suspects.

Specifically, the multi-faceted campaign targets these Democrats with television or radio ads, or a pre-recorded telephone message to constituents' homes, that criticizes the members of Congress for voting against initiating an investigation into when Pelosi learned about the use of waterboarding.

It is the first time the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the congressional GOP, has bought a TV ad using Pelosi's comments about the CIA. Late last week, the Republican National Committee posted a Web video comparing the House speaker to the James Bond character Pussy Galore. The RNC video has since been removed from its Web site and You Tube.

(Updated after the jump with Democratic response)
Read the rest of this entry »

The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a web ad Friday targeting Democratic candidate Scott Murphy, invoking 9/11 to hammer him over his position on the death penalty.

(CNN) - Just days before the special election for a seat in New York's 20th congressional district, the National Republican Congressional Committee launched a web ad Friday targeting Democratic candidate Scott Murphy, invoking 9/11 to hammer him over his position on the death penalty.

In the 60 second spot titled "National Tragedy," the NRCC highlights Murphy's opposition to the death penalty for the plotters of the September 11 terror attack.

The video presents a segment from the "Fred Dicker Show" where Murphy defended his position opposing the death penalty in all cases, while images of the 9/11 attackers flash on screen.

"I think that we so often deal with cases where the evidence may not be totally conclusive and we can't prove for beyond any shadow of a doubt," Murphy recently said on the show. "I think that the cost is just not accurate for it. It's so much more costly than putting someone away. It's a big expense."

"So you're against the death penalty for terrorists," Dicker asks.

"Yeah," Murphy says as the ad closes.

Voters in the special election to replace Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand go to the polls on Tuesday.

Pres. Bush addressed a meeting of the NRCC in 2007. The GOP group is now headed by Rep. Pete Sessions.

(CNN) – In another sign of the Republican Party’s efforts to regroup after multiple losses on Election Day, the National Republican Congressional Committee is now under new leadership.

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas is now in charge of GOP efforts to win back a majority in the House of Representatives.

“Today marks a new beginning for the NRCC,” Session said in a statement released after his election Wednesday. “I will build an aggressive, energized, and modernized NRCC by immediately working to strengthen fundraising, implement strategic candidate recruitment, update messaging and technology, and create organizational strength and long-term strategies to secure a Republican Majority.”

Sessions takes over after Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma decided not to seek reelection as head of the GOP committee.

The DCCC is out with a new Web ad Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, looking to link high gas prices to congressional Republicans, released a new Web ad Wednesday that paints the GOP as a key ally of the oil industry.

Set to the tune of the one-time Golden Girls theme song - Andrew Gold's "Thank You for Being a Friend" - the ad scrolls through news headlines proclaiming the increase of gas prices, and says “Republicans opposed punishing price gougers," and "The oil and gas company thanked Republicans with millions of dollars."

"Thanks to the Republican road blocks in Congress, gas prices continued to skyrocket just in time for the holiday travel rush - ensuring that millions of dollars flowed into the pockets of their Big Oil friends and out of the pockets of America's hardworking families," DCCC Executive Director Brian Wolff wrote in a fundraising e-mail showcasing the video.

The DCCC’s Republican counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, shot back with a release - “Democrats Line Pockets with Oil and Gas Money” – that accused Democrats of abandoning campaign pledges to address surging prices at the pump.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, became the first female Speaker of the House in January 2007 after Democrats won control of the House in the 2006 election.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider takes a look at the challenges the GOP may face in the House in the next Congressional election. Watch Schneider's report.

Rep. Cole is chairman of the NRCC.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush’s poll numbers are hovering around 30 percent and Congress’s are even lower, but National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, said Thursday he “feels good” about his party’s chances in the 2008 congressional races.

In a briefing with reporters, Cole said the NRCC has recruited 15 to 20 “strong candidates” in districts that were closely fought in 2006, and said they were “pragmatic professional decision makers." He also said he expects an anti-incumbent mood to collectively benefit his party, which currently finds itself in the minority.

But Cole’s job is made more difficult by the NRCC’s financial disadvantage relative to its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Cole said Thursday that the committee raised between $13 million and $14 million dollars in the second quarter, and currently only has $2 million cash on hand. Meanwhile the DCCC said Thursday it had raised $17 million in the same period and has $19.5 million on hand - nearly ten times more than the NRCC.

Both committees face debts of around $4 million.

As for the President’s influence in the congressional races, Cole said "he won't be the decisive figure in the '08 election. There will be a new face on the Republican Party."

Cole also downplayed the effect of any particular Democratic candidate in motivating his party’s voters.

“I don’t think people vote for or against their representative on the basis of their presidential nominee,” he said.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The National Republican Congressional Committee came out with a new Web video Thursday that they claim highlights "the Democrat majority’s broken promises, abysmal record and rock-bottom approval rating."

The 2 minute 47 second video features Linda Ronstadt's hit "You're No Good," while highlighting several media reports on Congress' low approval ratings and the Democrats' performance since taking control of the chamber in January.

“House Democrats have failed to deliver on their campaign promises to change Washington ,” NRCC Communications Director Jessica Boulanger said in a statement announcing the video. “This Democrat team can’t get the job done and the American people are taking notice.”

The NRCC Web video comes as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tells CNN they will target seven Republicans in a five-day radio ad buy next week accusing the GOP lawmakers of having a poor record on veterans’ issues.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

The NRCC unveiled its new Web site Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The National Republican Congressional Committee re-launched its Web site Tuesday, hoping to increase its impact online ahead of the 2008 congressional elections.

"The new NRCC.org is an example of our focus on expanding the NRCC’s online presence and utilizing some of the latest tools to not just achieve online parity with Democrats, but to beat them by energizing our supporters, spreading our message and reclaiming the majority," NRCC Communications Director Jessica Boulanger said in a statement.

The new Web site features a blog, several web videos, an online "action center," and links to social networking sites.

The committee has also hired a director of New Media to oversee its presence in the blogosphere.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney