August 17, 2010 07:44 PM UTC

American Crossroads Running Anti-Bennet Ads

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• by: Colorado Pols

As our friends at “The Fix” report, another outside group is running ads to help the candidacy of Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck:

American Crossroads, the conservative outside organization that has pledged to raise upwards of $60 million for the midterm elections, is spending nearly $1 million on new television ads in the Colorado and Ohio Senate races…

…The Colorado ad, funded by Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) organization, hits appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D) for a “spending spree” since coming to Congress early last year…

…American Crossroads is spending $500,000 on the Ohio ad and Crossroads GPS is dropping another $425,000 on the Colorado commercial, which is running in the Denver and Colorado Springs media markets. Both ads will run for a week.

While the group’s fundraising started slowly earlier in the year, the 527 wing reported raising $3.4 million in June alone — including $1.3 million from Public Storage Inc. Chairman B. Wayne Hughes.

Democrats have long fretted about spending from conservative-aligned groups in the final few months of the election erasing their financial edge heading into the fall. That advantage is much more pronounced on the House side — where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a two-to-one cash edge over its Republican counterparts — but Senate Democrats also ended June with $2 million more in the bank than the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Buck recently hired a new campaign manager, John Swartout, who will take over the role previously held by Walt Klein, who will continue to serve as the General Consultant for the campaign. It’s a nice job if you can get it — Managing a campaign without really having to worry about fundraising.