MA-04: AIRWAVES getting CROWDED in House race
After months of packing their campaign war chests, some Democrats running in the crowded primary to fill Rep. Joe Kennedy III's open House seat are spending thousands of dollars on television ads.
Earlier this week, Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss spent nearly $30,000 to air his first television ad. Then Democratic socialist Ihssane Leckey, a former Wall Street regulator, reserved $110,000 worth of cable TV airtime on Thursday. And now City Year co-founder Alan Khazei is also placing a TV ad buy, according to a source.
One reason campaigns are shifting to TV is because the congressional race is wide open. An internal poll from Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman's campaign showed 60 percent of voters are undecided on who to vote for. TV may play an outsize role in the primary this year — candidates can't hold large events due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the state's expanded vote-by-mail and early voting options mean many voters will cast ballots much sooner than Sept. 1.
So far, the candidates with the most money in the bank are going up on television. Auchincloss has $1.16 million in cash on hand for the primary, his campaign says, while Khazei is reporting $809,000 in his primary war chest. Leckey raised eyebrows this week when she posted a $710,000 fundraising haul this quarter, which was largely made up of $650,000 from her and her husband's life savings, according to the Leckey campaign.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/massachusetts-playbook/2020/07/10/airwaves-getting-crowded-in-house-race-police-bill-hits-hurdle-in-senate-trump-comes-to-nh-on-saturday-489758
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