The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has just poured a half million dollars to prop up the campaign of Alyse Galvin, who is has already spent more money than Congressman Don Young in the congressional race.
In Tuesday’s Primary election, Young won 36,674 votes on the Republican ballot, while Galvin only got 24,134 votes. Absentees have not yet been counted.
Galvin’s performance with voters was so poor, in spite of her campaign outspending Young five-to-one, that the television buy from the DCCC came as soon as the committee realized she is in trouble.
Galvin’s own campaign’s television ad buy is $700,000, compared with Young’s $400,000. Now comes the DCC’s $500,000, bringing her a whopping $1.2 million for television ads to present herself to voters.
That’s a lot for television in Alaska. But it’s not that much for the DCCC, and there’s a message there. Galvin is evidently not as strong a candidate as Ethan Berkowitz was in 2008. That year, the DCC poured $6 million into propping up his campaign.
Young received 50% of the vote in 2008, to Berkowitz’s 45% that year.
Berkowitz came closer than any other candidate to unseating Young since John Devens of Valdez tried to bump him off in 1990.
If the DCCC was as confident of Galvin as it was of Berkowitz, it would be spending $7.2 million on those television buys, which is what that $6 million in 2008 would translate to today, if counting for inflation.
