NRSC

UPDATED 1:30 P.M. 10/24/2008 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is pulling out of Colorado, the Washington Post is reporting -- just a few days after NRSC officials insisted they would stay in the state through Election Day.

The NRSC, which has spent more than $2 million this election cycle on ads attacking Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Mark Udall, had just released a new anti-Udall TV ad Thursday in most Colorado markets.

The Atlantic reported last Friday that the NRSC would be leaving Colorado, but NRSC officials insisted they wouldn't be leaving.

Days after the National Republican Senatorial Committee dismissed rumors that it would be pulling out of the Colorado U.S. Senate race, the group released a new television ad Thursday hitting Democratic nominee Mark Udall as a "lieutenant" for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The ad began running Thursday statewide except for the Grand Junction market, said NRSC spokesman John Randall.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is not pulling out of Colorado, as previously reported, and released a new television ad Friday attacking Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Mark Udall.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reported earlier Friday that the NRSC was pulling out of Colorado next week to refocus on U.S. Senate races in Minnesota, Mississippi and New Hampshire.

But NRSC spokesman John Randall said, "reports of a pullout are false," but he declined to comment on specifics.

UPDATED 8:34 A.M. 10/17/2008

Confirming earlier rumors, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will be pulling out of Colorado next week,The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder is reporting.

The NRSC's withdrawal from the Colorado U.S. Senate race is an acknowledgement that its resources would be better spent on other races, Ambinder stated, including Roger Wicker in Mississippi, Norm Coleman in Minnesota, and John Sununu in New Hampshire.

Matthew Miller, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an email that the news meant that the NRSC was "abandoning Republican Bob Schaffer and essentially conceding the seat to Democrat Mark Udall."

Senate candidate Bob SchafferIt’s been a busy week for outside groups in the hotly contested Senate race and the environmental organization League of Conservation Voters is the latest to hit the airwaves.

“Every drop of water is precious to the Western Slope,” an announcer says in the 30-second television ad. “But Bob Schaffer supported giving state government a $2 billion blank check to take water away from the Western Slope and send it to front-range developers. Schaffer has accepted over $400,000 from developers, dipping his fingers further into special interests and leaving Colorado high and dry.”

An LCV spokesperson did not specify the size of the media buy, but said the ad would be running in the Grand Junction media market.

A week after Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall's campaign released a TV ad on national security, Udall unveiled a second TV ad on the same issue Tuesday.

The new ad, entitled "Respected," begins airing in the Denver market Tuesday. It will start running in the Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and Pueblo markets next week, said Udall spokesperson Tara Trujillo. 

All runs will be open-ended, Trujillo said.

Also Tuesday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released an online rebuttal video to Udall's first TV ad on national security.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is continuing to blast Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall for a statement his Congressional office released last week stating he agreed with a federal court decision overturning Washington D.C.'s gun ban.

In their latest Udall online attack ad, released Friday, the NRSC claims Udall "played election-year politics" by agreeing with the decision, pointing to several times when he voted to maintain D.C.'s gun ban in private residences and against allowing D.C. residents to own a handgun.

Udall spokesperson Taylor West responded that “With oil executive Bob Schaffer, who spent six years in Congress doing nothing for Colorado and then cashing in with a six-figure Big Oil job, as their candidate, it’s no surprise that national Republicans know their only chance is to attack and distort Mark Udall’s record of working for Coloradans.”

Also, the NRSC seems to be sticking with the "U-Turn Udall" moniker it came up with last week: the video released Friday even includes a fancy graphic featuring Udall's head on a u-turn road sign.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has a new video criticizing Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall for not co-sponsoring House legislation protesting a recent anti-Marine resolution passed by the Berkeley, California city council.

The House resolution, H.R. 5222, would rescind about $3 million in federal earmarks for the city of Berkeley and transfer that money to the Marine Corps.