Senate Majority PAC Pumps Cash Into Vulnerable Senate Races As Dems Claim “Distance” From Chuck

Today, The Washington Post reports that Senator Chuck Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC is pumping $17 million in television ads for the month of August. The states include Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, West Virginia, Nevada, and Tennessee.

The latest influx of cash signals that vulnerable red-state Democrats are more indebted to Schumer than ever before this cycle. Yet, all of the senators continue to pretend that they’ll buck the party:

• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV): “I’ll be 71 years old in August, you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what.”
• Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN): “My decision [on the Supreme Court] won’t have anything to do with Chuck Schumer.”
• Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND): “I’m going to vote the way I’m going to vote regardless of what the leader says.”
• Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): “He knows I’ll tell him to take a flyin’ leap.”
• Former Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-TN): “I have no commitments or anything there…”
• Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-NV): “I’m Jacky Rosen, and I approve this message because I’ll work to fix Obamacare… and I won’t walk the party line.”

Red-state Democrats are tied to Schumer and will continue to toe the party line despite their rhetoric to the contrary.