Clinton allies ready $70M for general election ads

A super-PAC aligned with Hillary Clinton is committing about $70 million for television ads specifically for the general election.

The move is a sign that Clinton’s allies are beginning to shift focus away from the primary battle with Bernie Sanders and to November.

{mosads}Guy Cecil, the Priorities USA’s chief strategist, told The New York Times he’s planning on running the ads in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia, Ohio and Florida, all major swing states in the general election race.

“Hillary’s campaign is not taking anything for granted, including the primary, which is why it’s even more important that we prepare for the long road ahead to November,” he said.

“We have learned a valuable lesson from Republicans during the primary. We cannot take Donald Trump or any other Republican nominee for granted. It will take an unprecedented campaign and independent effort to communicate, register, mobilize, and turn out voters. There’s no time to waste.”

The ads would begin after the Democratic National Convention, where Clinton allies believe she’ll officially win the party’s nomination. According to The Associated Press, she leads Sanders among pledged delegates, 1,214 to 911. When taking superdelegates into account, Clinton’s 1,681 total delegates put her about 70 percent of the way towards meeting the threshold for the nomination, although superdelegates are free to switch sides prior to the Democratic National Convention.

Priorities USA told the Times it is preparing for either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to win the GOP’s nomination. But the outcome is far from certain, as the Republican race continues to creep towards a contested convention.

Super-PAC’s do not enjoy preferential rates given to official campaigns, so the decision to lock in slots sooner would likely help Priorities USA spend less for those spots than the group would if it waited to make the investment.