National party committees could heat up CO-4 race

Both parties' national congressional fundraising arms will likely be muscling in the 4th Congressional District race soon, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee have six-figure television ad buys slated to start as soon as today on Denver market broadcast stations.

And in remarks at the National Press Club on Friday, DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen and former NRCC Chair Tom Davis both indicated the 4th Congressional District will be a battleground in the final three weeks of the 2008 campaign.

Van Hollen, a U.S. Representative from Mayland, said at the NPC that the 4th district race was one of three competitive campaigns "that might not be on people's screens so much," according to the Coloradoan. The other two were in New York and Florida.

"Colorado 4, that's been a seat that was hard fought last time around, Marilyn Musgrave's seat," Van Hollen said, according to the Coloradoan. "Again, that's a great opportunity for the Democrats with Betsy Markey, a terrific candidate."

Davis, a Virginian who's retiring from Congress after this year, agreed that "all three of those seats are competitive seats," according to the Coloradoan.

"Marilyn Musgrave actually picked up the Denver Post endorsement the other day, which I think shocks anybody who's followed that as it moves around," said Davis, according to the Coloradoan. "These are competitive districts and all you can say three weeks out is we're going to both throw everything we can into these districts. Part of it will depend on the candidates and the atmospherics and what that wave is going into Election Day."

So far, the DCCC has spent $70,000 on anti-Musgrave mailers, while the NRCC has put $84,000 towards co-sponsoring a Musgrave television ad that began airing last month.

But the NRCC has reserved $1.2 million worth of TV ad time, while the DCCC has made a $667,000 ad buy.

While those ad buy reservations are subject to change, the Coloradoan's Bob Moore wrote, "Based on the comments from Van Hollen and Davis, it's reasonable to expect heavy spending by both national party groups in our neck of the woods over the last three weeks of the election."