It's Loss Cutting Time

This is the point in the campaign when the parties take a hard look at the races and begin juggling their spending to support those campaigns they think they can still win, and cut their losses in campaigns that now appear to be a lost cause. It looks like Mike DeWine's race in Ohio has fallen into that last category:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — Senior Republican leaders have concluded that Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a pivotal state in this year’s fierce midterm election battles, is likely to be heading for defeat and are moving to reduce financial support for his race and divert party money to other embattled Republican senators, party officials said.

The decision to effectively write off Mr. DeWine’s seat, after a series of internal Republican polls showed him falling behind his Democratic challenger, is part of a fluid series of choices by top leaders in both parties as they set the strategic framework of the campaign’s final three weeks, signaling, by where they are spending television money and other resources, the Senate and House races where they believe they have the best chances of success.

Republicans are now pinning their hopes of holding the Senate on three states — Missouri, Tennessee and, with Ohio off the table, probably Virginia — while trying to hold on to the House by pouring money into districts where Republicans have a strong historical or registration advantage, party officials said Sunday. Republicans also said they would run advertisements in New Jersey this week to test the vulnerability of Senator Robert Menendez, one of the few Democrats who appear endangered.

I won't really mourn a DeWine loss in Ohio. As part of the "gang of 14" I thought DeWine did a lot more harm to conservative causes than good. It will make it tougher for the GOP to hold control, but maybe their next candidate for that seat, and other seats, will learn something from DeWine's example.

UPDATE: The RNC just sent me this note stating that the NY Times report about the GOP pulling out of Ohio is wrong:

Today’s New York Times falsely states that the RNC has conceded the Ohio Senate race. As anyone who reads our FEC reports can see, the RNC has spent more money on Ohio than any other state. That level of spending will continue.

The notion that the RNC is pulling out of Ohio is just dead wrong.

UPDATE: GOP make big statewide ad buy in Ohio. Looks like the Times was wrong.