GOP Redirects Funds From Faltering Races

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Faced with a deteriorating political climate, Republican Party officials are hoping to keep control of the House and Senate with a strategy aimed at shoring up enough endangered incumbents to preserve their majorities, while scaling back planned spending on races that now appear unwinnable.

In recent days, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has given back television time it had reserved in Democratic-held districts in West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio -- apparently concluding that those races are beyond reach unless something dramatic changes the national political environment in the 25 days before the Nov. 7 election.

The Republican National Committee, which is using its substantial resources to supplement the party's Senate campaign committee, has spent virtually all of its television money in just three states -- Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee -- hoping to build a levee strong enough to save those seats and their Senate majority.

But recent events, among them the problems facing Republican Sens. George Allen in Virginia and Mike DeWine in Ohio, make that task even more difficult, GOP strategists privately concede.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201881.html