Report: Dems pull Baron Hill ads

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Congressman Baron Hill is losing Democratic Party support according to a report out of Washington, D.C.

The 9th District battle between Democrat Baron Hill and Republican Todd Young will likely come down to the wire. That's why a report that House Democrats canceled the purchase of a TV ad for Hill has Republicans buzzing. Two weeks worth of television ads for Hill, scheduled to run in mid-October, have been canceled, according to a story in the Capitol Hill publication Hotline.

It's campaign fodder for Republicans.

"The reality is that they're doing it, we believe, because Hill's campaign hasn't gotten the kind of traction they'd like to see," Indiana GOP Chairman Murray Clark said. "And his over-the-top negativity in his approach and his campaign and his advertising just is not getting him anywhere in the 9th District."

Hill's ads, including one that features a woman saying, "Todd Young is not for us," are negative. But so are the ads from Republican Todd Young. They include one featuring Hill telling a town hall attendee, "And you're not going to tell me how to run my Congressional office," along with horror show sound effects.

Democrats say Hotline only got part of the story. State Democratic Chairman Dan Parker says that Hill's re-election bid is still a priority even as Washington Democrats re-allocate resources in the effort to maintain control of Congress.

"I think that you'll be seeing the state party step up their efforts in support of Baron," Parker said.

At the moment, Democrats say, Hill is receiving more national party support than Young is. The Hill campaign is directing reporters to another Washington report — this one in the National Journal — that says his chances of re-election have improved recently.