The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is jumping back into the Kentucky Senate race after stopping its TV ad buy last week.
A DSCC official confirmed the committee plans to spend another $650,000 on TV to bolster Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
According a Democratic source tracking ad buys, Senate Majority PAC is also poised to go back on the air with a purchase in the high six figures.
Though McConnell has maintained a lead in most public polls, Democrats say the race has tightened over the past few days.
{mosads}A Republican source who tracks media buys said there was no evidence on Wednesday that the Democratic campaign committee had already committed to the buy.
The committee went dark last week after a $1.4 million ad buy against McConnell ran its course, sending a signal that it was poised to give up its bid to knock out McConnell.
But DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil insisted at the time he was not giving up on Grimes. He noted on Tuesday of last week that he had wired $300,000 to the Democratic get-out-the-vote operation in Kentucky.
Major Democratic donors, such as Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, have made defeating McConnell this cycle a top priority. They were likely disappointed by news last week that the DSCC had pulled the plug on TV spending in the Bluegrass State.
A new Bluegrass Poll conducted by SurveyUSA for The Lexington Herald-Leader, WHAS-TV and WKYT-TV and released Monday showed McConnell and Grimes in a virtual tie.
The survey revealed McConnell winning support from 44 percent of likely voters compared to Grimes’s 43 percent.
A Bluegrass Poll released three weeks before showed Grimes with a slight edge, 46 percent to 44 percent.
In response to Democrats’ moves on Wednesday, McConnell’s campaign released their own internal polling showing them with an eight point lead, 49 percent to 41 percent.
A source close to McConnell’s campaign said $650,000 worth of television advertising would have little impact if that’s all the DSCC spends between now and Nov. 4.
If the ads are concentrated over a four-day period, however, it would have more bang for the buck, the GOP source said.
“If they’re stretching it out to Nov. 4, it’s basically nothing. But if the ad starts this weekend and goes until Tuesday, that’s a lot of spots over four days,” the source said.
The latest Bluegrass poll shows 38 percent of likely voters view McConnell favorably while 47 percent see him unfavorably
Democratic leaders think that even though the senator has a consistent lead in some public polls, his inability to keep his approval rating above 45 percent presents a major vulnerability.
Updated at 4:58 p.m.