Morning Digest: National Republicans haven't left Iowa Rep. Rod Blum for dead after all
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Our race ratings: Senate | Governor | House The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, DavidMorning Digest: National Republicans haven't left Iowa Rep. Rod Blum for dead after all
Our race ratings: Senate | Governor | House The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ● IA-01: This is precisely why we caution that, as long as there's time left on the clock, no triage decision is final: Though both the NRCC and the Congressional Leadership Fund had seemingly abandoned GOP Rep. Rod Blum by never making any TV ad reservations, the CLF on Tuesday announced it was jumping in with a $1 million buy attacking Democrat Abby Finkenauer for the final weeks of the election. For its part, the DCCC, which reportedly canceled almost all of its reservations in Iowa's 1st District last month, isn't quitting the race either and is going up with a new negative hit on Blum. Campaign Action It's hard to say what's going on here. Just days after releasing a survey from The Polling Company that showed Finkenauer ahead just 44-43, Blum put out another poll from the same firm on Tuesday that has his opponent in front 45-43. It's not clear why Blum would share two similar polls back to back like this, especially since the second one was a touch worse for him, though perhaps he wants to argue that the first set of results weren't a fluke. The CLF's private polling, at least, likely shows something similar, but there's little to compare this data to. The only survey we've seen from a reputable outfit, a Siena poll showing Finkenauer up by a sizable 52-37 margin, is now a month old. It's certainly possible this race has narrowed, but it's still notable that even Blum's own polls have him trailing. It may therefore be the case that this late rescue attempt is among the least-bad options for a Republican Party that is trying to hang on to its majority while facing a challenging map. You can keep up with all the latest triage moves by bookmarking our tracker. Read more