The smart people at the Cook Political Report have a comprehensive analysis of the “ad metrics like sponsors, unique advertisements, and spot occurrences” and use them to take a look at potential things to come in 2014 . Their summary – in a nutshell – the Democrats are a lot more “savvy” at helping their candidates than Republicans.
We saw a lot of this last year in key races – Dem out side groups coordinating messaging efforts and timing. That also includes party committees – they can’t coordinate (and we aren’t suggesting they are) but they monitor and play off each other a lot better than Republicans do. So in a targeted race when the DCCC is places a buy for 4-weeks in Sept. and then goes dark, you can expect to see one of their outside allies jump in to fill that gap because they are monitoring what the DCCC is doing. Or vice versa. Republican campaigns never get a breather. We expect Republican ally groups – who have taken notice – will be just as effective in 2014.
