Morning Digest: Why the DCCC is using 'hybrid ads' to boost its favored candidate in Oregon

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

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Leading Off

● OR-05: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee just launched an ad campaign in concert with state Rep. Janelle Bynum to boost her ahead of Oregon's May 21 Democratic primary, deploying an unusual strategy to ensure its preferred candidate secures the Democratic nomination in the state's swingy 5th Congressional District.

In the ad, which AdImpact reports is backed by a $116,000 buy over the coming week, Bynum introduces herself as a busy working mom. A narrator soon takes over and tells viewers that Democrats in the state legislature passed laws guaranteeing equal pay and raising the minimum wage.

The voiceover then switches gears slightly. "In Congress," says the narrator, "Democrats will fight for Oregonians by holding CEOs accountable for price gouging to bring down housing and grocery costs."

These references to the Democratic Party, rather than a more typical message that would focus solely on Bynum, are deliberate: They enable the DCCC to take advantage of a seldom-used loophole in campaign finance law that allows the committee to spend much more than it would normally by deploying what's known as a "hybrid" ad.

Normally, a party committee like the DCCC has two options for boosting candidates. Most commonly, it can engage in spending without coordinating directly with a candidate's campaign, a practice known as an independent expenditure; such spending is uncapped.

But if the committee wants to work hand-in-hand with a particular candidate, it's limited to $61,800 per election cycle under the FEC's rules for so-called coordinated expenditures.

Hybrid ads work differently. As Simone Pathé, then working at Roll Call, explained in 2016, the practice was first pioneered by George W. Bush's reelection campaign in 2004. By referencing a party writ large—as opposed to just a single candidate—Republicans argued that Bush and the Republican National Committee should be able to split advertising costs above the normal limits.

In one such ad attacking John Kerry on health care, the narrator twice referenced "John Kerry and liberals in Congress." Writing in the New Republic at the time, Jonathan Cohn slammed the spot for its "gross distortions" of Kerry's health care plan. But as Pathé recounts, Democrats soon adopted the tactic themselves, and the FEC never clamped down on it.

In order to succeed, however, such messages require an environment where one party is either on the outs—as Bush's strategists were betting was the case for Democrats in 2004—or is sufficiently popular, such as when Democrats repeatedly blasted Illinois Rep. Bob Dold "and the Republicans," the example that sparked Pathé's investigation.

Politico reported that the DCCC spent more than 30 times the normal coordinated expenditure limit to air its barrage against Dold, who lost reelection in a suburban Chicago district that has swung sharply to the left. In addition, when it comes to hybrid ads, stations charge the lower ad rates that candidates are entitled to rather than the higher rates third-party groups face.

In a Democratic primary, though, the DCCC can readily expect that voters have a positive view of the Democratic Party: National polling from Civiqs, for instance, shows that 81% of  Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of their party. In this case, the committee would like to see Bynum make it past attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who narrowly lost to Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in 2022.

However, McLeod-Skinner has since been the subject of multiple stories reporting that she abused her campaign staff and led some to fear for their physical safety. Not long after the most such recent report, the DCCC weighed in on the race, adding Bynum to its "Red to Blue" list that highlights top-tier Democratic House candidates.

1Q Fundraising

• MD-Sen: Angela Alsobrooks (D): $2.1 million raised
• MN-05: Ilhan Omar (D-inc): $1.7 million raised, $2.1 million cash-on-hand
• NJ-07: Sue Altman (D): $580,000 raised, $910,000 cash on hand
• NY-17: Mondaire Jones (D): $1.75 million raised, $3 million cash on hand
• WI-01: Bryan Steil (R-inc): $839,000 raised, $4 million cash on hand

Senate

● MI-Sen: Rep. Lisa McClain has endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers' Senate bid, making her the third Republican in Michigan's House delegation to get behind Rogers. Previously, Rogers, who also has Donald Trump's support, earned the backing of Reps. Jack Bergman and Tim Walberg. Rogers' two most prominent opponents in the GOP primary, former Reps. Justin Amash and Peter Meijer, don't appear to have been endorsed by any of their former colleagues despite serving in Congress much more recently than Rogers, who left office a decade ago.

● MT-Sen: A new poll from J.L. Partners finds Republican Tim Sheehy edging out Democratic Sen. Jon Tester by a 48-45 margin. The survey did not include a question about the presidential race.

It's not clear whether the poll was performed for a client, though Holly Michels of the Montana State News Bureau says it was "provided exclusively" to her organization. J.L. Partners is a British firm whose principals have ties to the U.K.'s Conservative Party and has performed work for Republican clients in the U.S.

Its most recent downballot poll came just ahead of the February special election in New York's 3rd Congressional District and found Democrat Tom Suozzi leading Republican Mazi Pilip 46-45. Suozzi won 54-46.

House

● CA-20: A California appellate court has rejected Democratic Secretary of State Shirley Weber's effort to remove Republican Assemblyman Vince Fong from the ballot in the state's 20th Congressional District, agreeing with a lower court that state law does not prohibit candidates from running for multiple offices simultaneously.

In December, Weber refused to allow Fong to run for the 20th District because he'd already filed paperwork seeking reelection to his seat in the state legislature. A state court, however, reinstated Fong, who placed first in the March 5 primary with 42% of the vote. He'll face fellow Republican Mike Boudreaux in the November general election. (Fong is unopposed in his legislative race.)

Fong and Boudreaux, who serves as sheriff in Tulare County, will also square off on May 21 in a special election runoff for the remaining months of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's term. It's not clear yet whether Weber plans a further appeal.

● NH-02: Retiring Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster endorsed former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern in the race to succeed her in New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District on Monday. Van Ostern managed Kuster's first bid for Congress in 2010, when she narrowly lost to Republican Rep. Charlie Bass by a 48-47 margin despite the GOP wave. (Kuster avenged her loss the following cycle, unseating Bass 50-45 while Van Ostern handily won a seat on the state's unique Executive Council that same night.)

Van Ostern, who so far is the only Democrat running for Kuster's seat, also unveiled an endorsement from former Gov. John Lynch, who served a history four two-year terms from 2005 to 2013.

● NJ-08: Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla has launched his first TV ads as he seeks to unseat Democratic Rep. Rob Menendez in the June 4 primary for New Jersey's dark blue 8th District.

The two new spots hit similar themes, with one narrated by Bhalla himself. In that ad, he emphasizes his background as the child of immigrants from India who became a civil rights attorney, saying his "first act as mayor of Hoboken was taking on Trump when he attacked immigrants." The New Jersey Globe's Joey Fox reports that the ads are backed by a "six-figure ad buy in English and Spanish," according to the campaign.

● NY-16: Westchester County Executive George Latimer's first TV ad ahead of his June 25 primary battle with Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman sticks to positive themes, touting his record of delivering "real progressive results." Latimer mentions his efforts to address climate change, ban gun shows, and "protect[] access to reproductive healthcare." The only nod toward his high-profile opponent is a subtle one right at the start, when Latimer says, "True public service means putting people over personal agendas." Bowman has yet to go on the air.

● NY-22: A poll of the June 25 Democratic primary in New York's 22nd District finds state Sen. John Mannion with a wide lead for the right to take on freshman Republican Rep. Brandon Williams. The survey, conducted by GBAO in late March, puts Brandon ahead of Air Force veteran Sarah Klee Hood by a 42-20 margin while Utica University professor Clemmie Harris takes 9% and 27% say they're undecided.

Williams was already one of the most vulnerable Republicans heading into the November elections, but the most recent round of court-ordered redistricting put him at even greater risk. Under the map used in 2022, Joe Biden would have carried his Syracuse-based district by a 53-45 margin, but the revised lines would have extended Biden's edge to 55-43, according to calculations from Daily Kos Elections.

Ad Roundup

• MT-Sen: Last Best Place (anti-Tim Sheehy (R))
• UT-Sen: Brad Wilson (R)
• NV-Sen: Americans for Prosperity (pro-Sam Brown (R))