NYT:  Big spending for Republican-friendly groups 

…Republican groups outside the official party are getting inside the 2010 midterms, spending millions of dollars on ad buys with less than three weeks until the election.

On Wednesday, four Republican-friendly groups — American Crossroads and its related advocacy group, Crossroads GPS, the American Action Network and the Commission on Hope, Growth and Opportunity — began a “House surge strategy,” pouring $50 million into several dozen competitive House races.

The blitz will mainly focus on races where Democrats have a financial advantage. Crossroads is contributing $10 million to the joint effort, including $2 million behind an initial set of ads that will go up Friday in eight House races. The group said it anticipates that its investment would cover at least 15 races….

“Our strategy is to strike behind the firewall and force them to thin out resources on the front line,” said Jonathan Collegio, the communications director for the group, referring to the Democratic plan of focusing on what he calls “vulnerable but winnable seats.”

Mr. Collegio said that while Crossroads had an early fund-raising goal of $50 million, it had already raised $56 million to date, and had a goal of $65 million by Election Day. Attacks by the White House and the Democratic National Committee on outside groups like Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Collegio said, have helped energize their base and bring in more donations.

The first eight races in which Crossroads will run ads include two for incumbents — Dan Lungren in  California’s Third Congressional District and Charles Djou in Hawaii’s First Congressional District. Both men are “vulnerable Republicans,” Mr. Collegio said, and his group wanted to ensure that they were “at parity in advertising with their Democratic counterparts.”

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LINK: http://www.americancrossroads.org/

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