Outside groups ramp up spending on Ernst’s Senate campaign

DAVENPORT - Outside groups are pumping about $700,000 worth of TV ads backing Joni Ernst into the Republican Senate primary in the final two weeks of the campaign, a figure that far exceeds what she is spending herself in the closing days of the race, according to Federal Election Commission filings and Democratic media trackers who are following ad buys in the state.

For weeks now, conservative groups across the spectrum have been lining up to back Ernst in the five-person race for the GOP's Senate nomination. Some already have spent significant sums promoting her or attacking rival Mark Jacobs.

But a significant purchase by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week accentuates just how much Ernst is benefiting from groups based outside the state in the final days of the primary.

The Chamber alone is spending $370,000, according to the media trackers.

The Chamber, along with American Heartland PAC, Reclaim America PAC and Senate Conservative Action, have all purchased TV ad time backing Ernst in the past week.

Reclaim America is the PAC run by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and American Heartland is primarily funded by Robert Mercer, a New York-based hedge fund executive.

Senate Conservatives Action was founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint.

Outside groups will certainly play a role in the fall campaign - on both sides.

Democrat Bruce Braley already has benefited from more than $500,000 in spending by the Senate Majority PAC, which has ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Braley also has been attacked by outside groups.

Still, the collective spending by the conservative groups has been in the primary, and nearly all has been to Ernst's benefit. It also stands in contrast to Ernst's more moderate TV spending plans in the closing days of the primary.

Ernst is spending only about $82,000 on TV ads in the last two weeks, according to the Democratic trackers.

The Ernst campaign said it can't control what outside groups do, and it has been credited with greatly helping its own cause with a pair of provocative television ads that won Ernst lots of free publicity when she was not getting much notice.

Derek Flowers, a spokesman for the campaign, said all that it's done for the past 11 months has led to this point.

'We've been running a campaign since last July,” he said.

He added that Ernst is grateful for all the support she's getting.

'They're clearly deciding Joni is the best candidate with the best background to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate and take on Bruce Braley in the fall,” he said.

The momentum has fueled fundraising, too. Between April 1 and May 14, Ernst raised more than $400,000 - more, in fact, than Braley did during the same period.

The outside money is helping to close the spending gap between Ernst and Jacobs, the wealthy former energy executive who still trails in the polls despite pumping more than $3 million of his own money into the campaign and outspending Ernst, $3.2 million to $786,000 through mid-May.

Jacobs' campaign had plans to spend $450,000 over the last two weeks of the campaign on TV.

For its part, the Jacobs camp says the involvement of these groups is a sign of their candidate's independence.

'The DC special interests know they can't control Mark Jacobs and have decided to do everything they can to prevent a battle-tested business leader from coming to Washington to challenge the status quo,” Alissa Ohl said.