Iowa “certainly looks like a toss-up,” says Rothenberg, with Democrat Bruce Braley blunting the recent momentum of Republican Joni Ernst. In Kansas, he says incumbent Republican Pat Roberts “appears to be trailing independent Greg Orman by anywhere from a couple of points to a half-dozen.” Roberts can rebound in a strongly Republican state, Rothenberg says, by playing on President Obama’s low approval ratings.
Roberts, who could be the next chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in Dodge City that “we have to change course because our country is headed for national socialism,” said Politico. Republicans plan a scorched-earth campaign against Orman, says The Hill newspaper.
Some $13.8 million was spent on television advertisements for the Senate race in Iowa from late June to mid-September, enough to buy a gourmet burrito for each of the state’s 1.9 million registered voters, says the Des Moines Register. “Instead, they aired more than 30,000 TV ads.” Most of the money for the ads comes from outside of Iowa, says the Register, which names the 16 biggest outside spenders.
In Arkansas, a new poll puts Republican Tom Cotton ahead of incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, 43-38 with 13 percent undecided, says Pollster. Cotton has led in two of the last three polls but nether candidate has topped 50 percent.