DeMint targets Senate colleagues
By Alexander Bolton - 10/02/10 06:00 AM ET

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is planning to wage a television campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democratic colleagues.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that DeMint helms, has produced an anti-Reid television ad and will raise money to launch it in Nevada.


The Senate Conservatives Fund’s first target, however, is Sen. Michael Bennet, the freshman Democrat from Colorado who is running against Ken Buck, a favorite of Tea Party voters.

DeMint’s committee plans to begin airing a hard-hitting ad against Bennet in Colorado on Tuesday.


His group will buy at least $150,000 worth of airtime in what has emerged as one of the hottest Senate battlegrounds.

The Senate Conservatives Fund is also planning to launch an ad in Wisconsin against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.). Feingold is trailing in the polls to businessman Ron Johnson (R).

DeMint’s bold foray is certain to shock some of his colleagues because senators almost never wage direct political attacks against each other.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for example, has pledged not to campaign against Reid in Nevada.

And Reid has had a non-aggression pact with his home-state Republican colleague Sen. John Ensign (Nev.) for several years.

But DeMint has set aside Senate protocol as he tries to defeat liberal colleagues and elect solid conservatives such as Buck and Sharron Angle, who is running against Reid.



“The Senate Conservatives Fund is a political action committee dedicated to electing common-sense conservative leaders to the United States Senate,â€