A strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Saturday posted a comment on Twitter that might be ominous for Sen. Pat Roberts.

“no Senator under 45 in RCP average heading into Elex Day has ever been re-elected,” wrote Brad Dayspring, who is also a former staffer to former U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor. (Read about his exit from Cantor’s staff here.)

Indeed, the political website Real Clear Politics shows Roberts’ polling average at 41.8 percent. And with independent challenger Greg Orman averaging 42.5 percent (a lead of just 0.7 percentage points), the race is generally considered a tossup.

The comment was actually in response to a tweet by someone else who noted that RCP shows North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagen, a Democrat, at 44.1 percent.

Orman’s campaign staff took note of Dayspring’s tweet and issued a statement with a banner headline: “BREAKING: NRSC Operative Brad Dayspring Predicts Roberts Loses Senate Race.”

But Dayspring said nothing could be further from the truth.

“That’s a ridiculous assertion, but not shocking coming from a candidate who insulted Bob Dole 3 days prior to Election Day,” he said in an email. “As my Twitter feed has made clear all week, the Race in Kansas is unprecedented in that Democrats ripped their candidate off the ballot because they had hoped to fool voters into believing that Greg Orman wasn’t the liberal everyone now knows him to be. Those circumstances make this Senate race impossible to compare to any others.”

“And to be clear,” he added, “Senator Roberts is going to win on Election Day and serve in a republican senate majority,” he added.”

Clown flap

Dayspring’s reference to a remark about Dole came from a quote Orman made when asked about all the national GOP figures who have been in Kansas campaigning for Roberts. Dole has appeared with Roberts several times.

“It sort of seems like a Washington establishment clown car to me,” Orman said in response, according to a story in the conservative Washington Examiner.

The Roberts campaign pounced on that comment, accusing Orman of having called Dole a “clown,” and issuing statements denouncing Orman for the attack. But during a campaign stop in Topeka, Orman said he had not tried to attack Dole personally.

“Sen. Dole represents the sort of bipartisan approach that we need for solving problems in Washington and I would never make any comment that was disparaging of Sen. Dole,” Orman said.