American Future Fund Reserves Over $800k in Iowa’s 1st District (sudden trouble for Braley?)

The Iowa Republican ^ | September 28, 2010 | Craig Robinson

[xjcsa]

The Iowa based American Future Fund (AFF) has reserved $800,000 for television ads in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. Democrat Congressman Bruce Braley represents the District. Braley is being challenged by Ben Lange, a Republican from Independence, in this fall’s election.

AFF has already been active in the District. Last month the group aired a television ad that was critical of Braley’s support of the mosque at Ground Zero. AFF has already launched radio ads, placed thousands of phone calls, and sent mailers to residents of the District about Braley’s liberal record. AFF told TheIowaRepublican.com that it estimates that it will spend $1 million in Iowa’s 1st District this fall.

[snip]

AFF’s presence in the 1st District is more than significant. Their $1 million budget targeting Braley means that they will likely spend more than Lange, and could even spend more money than Braley does this fall. According to FEC documents filed in July, Braley had $632,385.48 available for his campaign to use this fall. That’s plenty of money to campaign against his Republican opponent, but not enough to match what AFF is doing across the district.

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Braley has never been in the situation he finds himself in today. In 2006, Braley won by a comfortable margin, and his 2008 opponent didn’t have the financial resources to do much at all. It is likely that Braley thought 2010 was going to be another cakewalk. Now, Braley is going to find himself being outspent by a third party group.

Time might be Pelosi and Braley’s biggest enemy. Democrats are already in a defensive position across the country. With little time to raise money and the DCCC already committed in races across the county, Braley could be in jeopardy of losing his seat. Never before have so many races been in play just five weeks before an election. With these conservative groups going on the offensive, Republicans could be poised to pick up a record number of seats this fall.

[xjcsa]

This kind of money is a game changer in this district - you could run a whole campaign with that kind of money and be competitive. In my view the analysis here is spot-on; this could cause serious trouble for Braley, who was thought to be relatively safe.

[CPT Clay]

I wonder how much for IA-02? Miller-Meeks is running a superb campaign.

[Iowa Granny]

It is still early,,, there may yet be some Ads for MMM.