WA-SEN: Ad Wars Heating Up

A new ad by independent group American Crossroads GPS titled “Washington Can’t Afford Patty” was released this week:

UPDATE: A reader emails to note a group calling itself Common Sense 10 went after Rossi with an ad starting 9/24.

WA-SEN: Blogger Reveals State Aided Murray Camp.

Bryan Myrick of RedCounty.com has the story:

Eighteen pages of emails obtained from the Washington Employment Security Department contain communication suggesting that Sen. Patty Murray’s re-election campaign met with a state worker with the purpose of asking for campaign work to be done using state resources.

Read the entire report.

WA-SEN: Fox News Says Murray Faces Tough Race

Fox News’ Carl Cameron reports from Seattle:

WA-SEN: Rossi Takes the Gloves Off in New Ad

Rossi’s latest ad hits Patty Murray hard on her record; it’s appropriately titled “Misery”:

WA-SEN: NPR Says State Key to GOP Majority

National Public Radio analyst Ken Rudin sees a dire picture for the party in power this Novemeber:

It’s been just about two months since my last review of the 37* Senate contests at stake in November, and if anything, the situation has gotten more dire for the Democrats.

…

The story line has long been that the Democrats’ control of the House is extremely tenuous but that their majority in the Senate, while certain to be diminished, is not in jeopardy.

That’s no longer the case.

Bringing that point home right here in this Washington, Rudin moves the WA-SEN race to a tossup after analyzing the August primary results:

In Washington, there are two ways to look at the Aug. 17 primary results, where all candidates, regardless of party, ran on the same ballot.  Sen. Patty Murray, the three-term Democratic incumbent, clearly outpolled Dino Rossi, the former two-time gubernatorial nominee, 46-34 percent.  From that alone, it’s hard to see how Murray is vulnerable, despite voter concerns over the economy.  But in looking at the total vote, Republicans tallied more than the Democrats — not a good sign for Murray in November.  And the polls show Murray and Rossi running evenly, one reason why Obama has been out campaigning for her.  I’m moving this from Democrat Favored to Tossup.

When even liberal NPR says that Patty Murray is politically endangered, it’s time for national Democrats to start worrying.