Senate races: Outside money flows to negative ads. Four Southern candidates were in the top ten of “most-attacked candidates by outside groups,” according to the Washington Post. In North Carolina, Thom Tillis, the Republican challenger to US Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), has the dubious distinction of being the target of more negative advertising than any other candidate in the nation this year, with $32,293,000 spent by outside groups to tarnish his image. In second place is Hagan, who’s had far less, but still a lot, spent to make her look bad: $18,546,000. Next is Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), running against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who’s been besmirched by $16,420,000 worth of negative ads; followed by US Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), with $14,285,000 in attack-ads used against him.
South Carolina: Ervin endorses Sheheen, who makes gaffe. Tom Ervin, a Republican running on the ballot as an independent, dropped out of the race this week and endorsed Democrat Vincent Sheheen. In a Winthrop University poll on October 1, Ervin garnered some 4% of the vote, with 44% for Haley to 34% for Sheheen. Meanwhile, Sheheen made a slip of the tongue (?) at a campaign event in Florence, telling a crowd of supporters, “We are going to escort whore out the door.” He quickly corrected himself, saying he meant “escort her out the door.” But the damage was done. Ann Romney came to Haley’s defense, saying Sheheen’s comment “hit me in the gut,” adding that “Nikki is a great girl and has been a great governor.”
Georgia: Perdue suffers from outsourcing. David Perdue, the GOP’s US Senate nominee, has a stellar business background, and that is giving him a major headache. The campaign of Democrat Michelle Nunn has zeroed in on Perdue’s statement in a 2005 deposition that he spent “most of my career” outsourcing, reports The Hill, which the Democrat equates with sending jobs abroad. The race is a toss-up, likely to be decided in a January runoff.