Democratic group pulls week of ads for Nelson

The political arm of House Democrats is pulling a week of campaign ads for Tom Nelson in the closely watched 8th Congressional District race, a move cheered by supporters of Republican Mike Gallagher.

GOP supporters were quick to question whether the dropping of a six-figure, week-long ad buy next month meant Democrats were losing confidence in the chances of Nelson, the Outagamie County executive. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said that wasn't the case, noting that for now the group is still running ads in the following weeks in October in its effort to help defeat Gallagher, a former Marine.

“Ad reservations are changing every week, and we will continue reevaluating all of our battleground races in this volatile national environment. Tom Nelson is the best candidate for this district and is running an aggressive campaign that exposes Mike Gallagher’s plan to cut Wisconsin seniors’ Social Security benefits, as indicated by having placed him on our program for competitive races in May," said Sacha Haworth, a spokeswoman for the DCCC.

Ad spending by legislative campaign committees is routinely scrutinized for clues about whether party leadership believe their side has a good chance in individual races.

Nelson's campaign manager, Ethan Susseles, had no immediate comment and neither did Madison Wiberg, a spokeswoman for Gallagher.

Haworth didn't immediately say the size of the ad purchase being dropped by House Democrats. Republican sources who track ad spending said that they believed it was roughly $240,000.