A leading Democratic super PAC on Monday suggested that attacking "the Koch Brothers" is a winning strategy. Hours later polls showed surging support for a Republican targeted by that strategy.
CNN polling released Monday morning showed Scott Brown is tied with Democrat incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) in their Senate race. A poll by a Republican group released the same day showed Brown in the lead.
The former Massachusetts senator’s surge in the polls has come despite attacks from NextGen Climate Action, a super PAC financed by billionaire financial kingpin Tom Steyer, tying Brown to libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch.
"Out-of-state oilmen like the Koch brothers are spending millions to elect out-of-state politician Scott Brown to our Senate seat," declared one NextGen ad last month.
Such attacks are part of what NextGen sees as a winning strategy in key Senate contests around the country.
"One of the most intriguing findings in the polling is that the Koch brothers have emerged as a negative signifier for Republicans aligning with these powerful self-serving corporate fat cats," wrote NextGen adviser Chris Lehane in a memo to the group’s state affiliates.
"Given these findings, various Democratic candidates and organizations are effectively deploying the Koch Brothers as a symbol of Republicans being the party of the Fat Cats (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid knew exactly what he was doing when earlier this year he elevated the role of the Koch brothers)," Lehane wrote.
Despite NextGen’s attacks in New Hampshire, CNN’s poll shows Brown and Shaheen tied at 48 percent.
Lehane identified voters with incomes under $100,000 as amenable to the message. CNN’s poll showed Shaheen with a seven-point lead among those making less than $50,000 annually. Brown leads by three among those making more than that.
Brown has significantly narrowed the polling gap in the race in the past month. RealClearPolitics, which averages political polls, found Shaheen up by 10 points in mid-August. That gap is now down to 3.5 points, the website says.
Hours after CNN released its Monday survey, Republican polling firm Magellan Strategies put out its own, which showed Brown leading Shaheen by 1.6 points.
Other Republicans have seen similar bumps in polls after being tagged as Koch-aligned candidates.
A July ad from the Democratic Party of Arkansas repeatedly referenced the Kochs, accusing Republican Senate candidate Tom Cotton of "secretly" meeting with them, and working to advance their agenda in Congress.
At the beginning of July, Cotton was trailing Sen. Mark Pryor (D., Ark.) by a point in RealClearPolitics' average. As of Sunday, Cotton was up by 2.5.