Federal court rules against House Dems in ad dispute

• Cash-strapped Senate Republicans have resorted to a campaign finance loophole to spend advertising dollars more efficiently.
• Democrats alleged that the way the GOP has been financing their ads is illegal, but a court was not convinced that it needed to step in to stop the practice.
• The Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadlocked on whether the ads were illegal last month, also allowing the ads to continue.

The big picture: Democratic Senate candidates have trounced their GOP competitors in fundraising this cycle, meaning Republican organizations and Super PACs have turned to cutting-edge ad tactics to spread their money around.

• The GOP has been making ads that look mostly like attack ads, but which are paid for by joint fundraising committees as if they are fundraising ads. Democrats argued that this violates contribution limits to federal candidates.
• A federal court ruled the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) did not meet the requirements to obtain a blockage from the court.

What they're saying: "Although we're disappointed in Democrats' desperate attempt to suppress party speech — instead of winning at the ballot box — we're grateful the Court reached the correct decision," Ryan G. Dollar, the general counsel for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, said in a statement.

• DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz told Axios the group will "evaluate next steps after the election."
• "While we are disappointed that the court did not issue immediate relief against this cynical ploy by Republicans to circumvent campaign finance law, we are heartened by the judge's observations on the merits of our case," Merz said.