Rebel Conservatives Excel in G.O.P. Fund-Raising, Heralding a Tug Right By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/us/politics/rebel-conservatives-lead-way-in-gop-fund-raising.html?hp&_r=1

Rebel Conservatives Excel in G.O.P. Fund-Raising, Heralding a Tug Right

By NICHOLAS CONFESSOREFEB. 1, 2014

 

Insurgent conservatives seeking to pull the Republican Party to the right raised more money last year than the groups controlled by the party establishment, whose bulging bank accounts and ties to major donors have been their most potent advantage in the running struggle over the party’s future, according to new campaign filings and interviews with officials.

The shift in fortunes among the largest and most influential outside political groups could have an enormous impact in the 2014 election cycle, as the Republican factions prepare to square off in a series of Senate and House primaries and as Republican leaders seek to rein in activists who they believe have fractured and endangered the party with policies that alienate independent-leaning voters.

Groups representing the party establishment, like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, are struggling to bring in the level of cash they raised in 2012, when Crossroads spent more than $300 million in an effort to defeat President Obama and retake the Senate, leaving some donors grumbling that their dollars had been wasted.

Meanwhile, insurgent conservative groups like the Tea Party Patriots — emboldened by activists’ fury over compromises that Republican leaders have struck with Democrats on federal spending — now have formidable amounts of cash to augment their grass-roots muscle.

The money will allow conservative groups to spend more heavily on television ads, direct mail and on-the-ground organizing in states like Alaska, Mississippi and South Carolina, where conservative and Tea Party-affiliated candidates are challenging incumbents or business-backed candidates.

Jenny Beth Martin, president of Tea Party Patriots, said the increase in fund-raising would allow her group to expand the number of races it could be active in and finance more sophisticated and data-driven voter outreach.

“Not just the amount of money, but the volume of donations and how many people are so active and engaged in our organization — those two things combined will allow us to get involved in more races,” Ms. Martin said.

The battles are being watched closely, especially in Kentucky, where the Senate Conservatives Fund and other conservative groups are backing a primary challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader and one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington.

No such division exists in the Democratic Party, where outside groups are successfully recruiting donors and collaborating on big races. Two “super PACs” focused on helping Democrats in Congress announced record fund-raising on Friday, pulling in a total of $16.4 million — twice their total in 2011, the last comparable year.

The drop in establishment Republican fund-raising is also empowering other conservative factions, particularly the political and philanthropic network overseen by the libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. Americans for Prosperity, the free-market advocacy group founded by David Koch, has become by far the biggest single spender on early-campaign issue advertisements against Democratic incumbents. Since October, it has spent more than $23 million.

That spree underscores the shifting balance in power in the party. During the 2012 campaign, Republican leaders counted on Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, the nonprofit arm of Mr. Rove’s group, to soften up Democratic candidates with issue ads in the early campaign season. Now that job is falling largely to Americans for Prosperity, which has been critical of Republican leaders’ strategy on issues like the debt ceiling.

“The model that we have been building for the past eight years — a state-based organization with a supportive home office but a permanent infrastructure on the ground, with real troops, and with real support behind it — is one that our supporters believe in,” said Levi Russell, an Americans for Prosperity spokesman.

Four Republican-leaning groups with close ties to the party’s leadership in Congress — Crossroads and its super PAC affiliate; the Congressional Leadership Fund; and Young Guns Action — raised a combined $7.7 million in 2013. By contrast, four conservative organizations that have battled Republican candidates deemed too moderate or too yielding on spending issues — FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth Action Fund, the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Tea Party Patriots — raised a total of $20 million in 2013, according to Federal Election Commission reports filed on Friday.

“This is by far the biggest nonelection year we’ve ever had,” said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which has feuded with party organizations. “It shows how committed people are to electing true conservatives and to advancing conservative principles.”

The emerging money gap is likely to put enormous pressure on deep-pocketed business groups to ante up, dragging historically cautious Beltway trade associations more fully into treacherous factional battles among their Republican allies.

Because some of the biggest groups are not required to report their fund-raising to the Federal Election Commission and did not volunteer the information, the figures do not include some major spenders on both sides, including Americans for Prosperity and the American Action Network.

And the party-oriented organizations, which were organized and remain oriented toward helping Republicans win general elections, raise most of their revenue later in the election cycle.

“Our pledges are on track with previous cycles, and we are increasingly enthusiastic about prospects for winning a majority in the Senate and holding the majority in the House,” said Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Crossroads.

Moreover, major trade associations with ties to the Republican establishment have signaled they will spend heavily in this year’s election cycle, in part to help elevate candidates who can perform strongly in matchups against Democrats. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, traditionally one of the biggest players in campaigns, is forecasting that it will spend about $50 million on a mix of general election and primary races. In the past, the group has largely stayed away from primaries.

Yet there are signs that some of the establishment-oriented groups are being careful with cash. American Crossroads, the American Action Network and the YG Network announced a joint $1.2 million advertising campaign in the special election for a congressional seat in Florida, suggesting that the groups were taking care to pool their spending to achieve a greater impact.

Some of the decline in fund-raising by major Republican groups is also being driven by the fragmentation of the party’s outside spending infrastructure. Mr. Rove’s battles with conservatives have drawn enough controversy that some incumbents and establishment candidates are wary of being openly associated with Crossroads. Instead, they are backed by smaller groups, often founded by the candidates’ donors and former aides, that focus on a single race, sometimes in consultation with Crossroads.

Such groups, in states like Alaska, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas, have raised about $5 million among them, easing some of the gap with conservative groups.

“We still see ourselves as the serious underdogs,” Mr. Hoskins said.

[Rapunzel]

 

[Formerly Once-Ler]

But the grass-roots groups FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth Action Fund, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and the Tea Party Patriots, raised $20 million last year, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

TEA PARTY PATRIOTS CITIZENS FUND
Raised $6,405,087 and spent $5,327,365 in 2013. They have $1,069,925 cash on hand

FREEDOMWORKS FOR AMERICA
Raised $847,243 and spent $1,083,260 in 2013.  They have $595,214 cash on hand   

CLUB FOR GROWTH ACTION
Raised $2,613,409 and spent $1,258,423 They have $1,776,687 cash on hand

SENATE CONSERVATIVES FUND
Raised $7,733,854 and spent $8,083,425.  They have cash on hand.  $859,424

That comes to a total raised of 17,599,593 (Club For Growth PAC raised $672,743 spent $513,509 and has $289,651)  There maybe some ancillary PACs that account for the 1.7 million difference between what the FEC says they raised and what the report says was raised.

Freedomworks is a joke they have less money than they did at the start of the year and what do they have to show for it?  Did they elect Ken Cuccinelli?  McAuliffe spent $33 million to win that Governorship.  How much did Freedomworks kick in out of the $1,083,260 they spent? If it was less than $33 million than it was just a fart in the breeze.  What else do they have to show for it?  http://www.gallup.com/poll/166217/tea-party-favorability-falls-lowest-yet.aspx

Tea Party Patiots and FreedomWorks don't file monthly but for your reading pleasure...

Here is the FEC info on CLUB FOR GROWTH ACTION
    
Report    Report Type    Total Receipts    Total Disbursements    Cash on Hand
2013    Year-End    $391,759    $27,223              $1,776,687
2013    December     $56,927    $19,970            $1,412,151
2013    November     $158,771    $356,131            $1,375,194
2013    October     $282,433    $118,336            $1,572,553
2013    September     $683,770    $161,281           $1,408,456
2013    August     $89,477    $67,994            $885,968
2013    July        $120,385    $36,628            $864,485
2013    June       $337,057    $7,668              $780,729
2013    May        $279,245    $38,294            $451,339
2013    April       $9,392     $385,844           $210,388
2013    March      $2,023     $30,373            $586,841
2013    February   $202,168    $8,677              $615,192

The Club For Growth has seen its receipts tank since August (the Sept report covers Aug 1st to Aug 30th) except for the accounting gimmicky Year-End report.  However they have $1,776,687 and added over 1.3 million to their cash on hand for the year.  Bravo Club for Growth.  They spent $1,776,687 but I have no idea how much money Club for Growth invested in Ken Cuccinelli's race. Probably not much since they were spending big bucks to convince freshmen Senators with skulls full of mush to shutdown the government.

Here is the FEC info on the SENATE CONSERVATIVES FUND
    
Year    Report Type    Total Receipts    Total Disbursements    Cash on Hand
2013    Year-End    $738,645    $733,596                $859,424
2013    December     $363,411    $636,024           $854,375
2013    November     $982,753    $1,498,220         $1,126,988
2013    October     $2,130,548    $1,328,357          $1,642,455
2013    September     $1,527,546    $2,104,179         $840,264
2013    August     $612,525    $532,986           $1,416,896
2013    July       $470,893    $404,781           $1,337,357
2013    June       $181,751    $194,615           $1,271,245
2013    May        $270,058    $237,494           $1,284,109
2013    April      $175,427    $191,614           $1,251,545
2013    March      $148,374    $61,433            $1,267,732
2013    February    $131,916    $160,121           $1,180,791

You see how they have less money now than they did at the beginning of the year?  All that money they raised they spent. They spent $8 million in 2013 and all you got was this lousy post.
 

“This is by far the biggest nonelection year we’ve ever had,” said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that squares off against establishment Republican organizations. "It shows how committed people are to electing true conservatives and to advancing conservative principles.”

Biggest year ever he says.  What do they have to show for it?  Combined they still have 4.3 million left of 18-20 million raised or roughly $1.8 million more than they started the year with.

I am less than impressed and things don't look like they are getting better for the brand of conservatism being hawked by Chocola, Kibbe, and Hoskins.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Insurgent conservatives seeking to pull the Republican Party to the right raised more money last year than the groups controlled by the party establishment, whose bulging bank accounts and ties to major donors have been their most potent advantage in the running struggle over the party’s future, according to new campaign filings and interviews with officials.

Fringe right groups did not out-raise the establishment.  The RNC pulled in 7.4 million in Dec alone.  Conservatives are excited because the Senate Conservative Fund pulled in $7.7 million all year.  Why did they raise $7.7 million?  Because they convinced a lot of people that shutting down the government was a smart play.  After 16 days of floundering leaderless the GOP recognized that Ted Moses Cruz didn't know where he was going and caved into a ridiculously weak end of the shutdown.  What does he have to show for this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9MXCo_PThI
We have seen a remarkable thing happen. Months ago when the effort to defund Obamacare began, official Washington scoffed. They scoffed that the American people would rise up. They scoffed that the House of Representatives would do anything and they scoffed that the Senate would do anything. We saw first of all, millions of millions of American people rising up across this country, over two million people signing a national petition to defund Obamacare. We saw the House of Representatives take a courageous stand listening to the American people that everyone in official Washington said wouldn’t happen.

The American people did NOT rise up.  If they had the government would still be shut down.  The House went along with Cruz and Cruz later calls the House vote to shutdown the government and defund Obamacare a "remarkable victory."  He does not call the House's government restoration of operation vote the following day a "crushing defeat."

Then Cruz reveals the victory a 2 million contact donor list.  How many laws can you pass with the consent of 2 million out of 300 million?

Groups representing the party establishment, like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, are struggling to bring in the level of cash they raised in 2012, when Crossroads spent more than $300 million in an effort to defeat President Obama and retake the Senate, leaving some donors grumbling that their dollars had been wasted.

2012 was a Presidential election.  2013 was an off-year.  AMERICAN CROSSROADS raised $3,595,898 spent $2,055,530 has $2,726,785 cash on hand.

American Crossroads has 2.7 million cash on hand.  That is more than Tea Party Patriot,  FreedomWorks, and Senate Conservative Fund combined.

...and again the 4 fringe conservative groups raised $20 million spent $15 million and have 4.3 million left.  What did you get for your money, conservatives?  a 16 day GOP poll tanking, rat electing mess.  Enjoy!

No such division exists in the Democratic Party, where outside groups are successfully recruiting donors and collaborating on big races. Two “super PACs” focused on helping Democrats in Congress announced record fund-raising on Friday, pulling in a total of $16.4 million — twice their total in 2011, the last comparable year.