Outside groups backing Ted Cruz land big checks in January
The six Republican presidential candidates and two Democratic contenders are due to report on the financial health of their campaigns by midnight Saturday. With Republicans voting in South Carolina and Democrats caucusing in Nevada, the reports on fundraising and spending in January provide a glimpse of who has been thinking ahead in the primary calendar. Most of the outside groups known as super political action committees also must report to the Federal Election Commission by midnight Saturday. Here’s what we know: CRUZ NETWORK GROWS Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has the biggest network of outside groups helping him out — more than half a dozen. A super PAC called Courageous Conservatives has stood out for employing some of the most aggressive tactics, even though it isn’t the best-funded of those pro-Cruz groups. In the lead-up to the South Carolina vote, Courageous Conservatives made thousands of automated phone calls bashing Donald Trump, who has consistently led polls in the state. So who’s paying for all this? The group’s January fundraising report shows it has two donors: Stan Herzog, a Missouri builder, and Christopher Ekstrom, a Dallas investor. Herzog, who gave $60,000 last month, is a seasoned super PAC donor, having put up more than $1 million to back 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Ekstrom has a relatively short history as a political donor: His $34,500 contribution to Courageous Conservatives last month appears to be his biggest ever. A far better funded pro-Cruz group, Stand for Truth, also filed a January fundraising report. That super PAC raised about $2.5 million in January. Its biggest contributor, Trinity Equity, gave more than $1 million. Corporate records show the Houston company shares an address with Quantum Energy Partners, a private equity firm run by Wil VanLoh, who has given the maximum legal amount to Cruz’s presidential campaign, $5,400. Stand for Truth’s FEC documents show the super PAC spent much of its money on South Carolina advertisements knocking Cruz rival Marco Rubio, a Florida senator. ___ TRUMP TAKEDOWN? NOT SO MUCH A super PAC claiming it would try to take down Trump has not really gotten off the ground. Make America Awesome — a riff on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — raised just $8,640 in January. That followed a disappointing December, when it raised just $1,711. The super PAC is led by Republican strategist and outspoken Trump antagonist Liz Mair. Perhaps because of its underwhelming funding, the super PAC has done just a few digital ads knocking the celebrity businessman. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
The 40-year-old Kansan behind the Clinton-knocking website
Jed McChesney awoke Friday morning to find that his website had crashed. When he glanced up at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” he learned why: Bernie Sanders had tweeted it to his 1.5 million followers. McChesney had made the site, iwilllookintoit.com, earlier this month, after hearing Hillary Clinton say those words in a Democratic presidential debate. That was her response when asked whether she would release transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and other big banks. Clinton’s speeches were on McChesney’s mind. A day earlier, she’d seemed dismissive of the six-figure fees the banks had given her when she said in an interview that’s what they’d offered her. “To me, it was the equivalent of her saying, ‘Let them eat cake,’” McChesney said. And that’s when the 40-year-old web developer in Olathe, Kansas said he became a fan of Sanders, whom he calls “genuine” and “the real deal.” Within a few days, McChesney had donated $650 to the campaign and created the now-famous website. It’s exceedingly basic, with red text on a white background and a running timer showing how long it has been since Clinton uttered the “look into it” promise. The site had been getting a little news coverage here and there but exploded in popularity after the Sanders tweet. No one from the campaign reached out to him beforehand, McChesney said. “This is all a total surprise,” he said. The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. About 50,000 visitors flooded into the site before the crash, and another 50,000 had clicked in the first two hours after McChesney switched to a larger server and got the site back up, he said. The site’s temporary error message Friday morning was what helped The Associated Press track down McChesney. It showed that iwilllookintoit.com is hosted by website promoting the sale of a Kansas ranch owned by McChesney’s parents. McChesney made the ranch’s website, too. The Clinton-questioning website took him five minutes to put together, McChesney said, “and it’s the most successful thing I’ve ever done.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Email insights: It’s a big day for Marco Rubio and Tim Scott
Today’s the big day in South Carolina for Tim Scott, one of two African-Americans in the U.S. Senate. Scott is also a recent convert to Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign. A new primary-day email fundraising pitch tells how Scott, with his “friend Trey Gowdy,” spent the past couple weeks crisscrossing the state to campaign for Rubio, whom Scott calls “the man who needs to be the next president of the United States.” South Carolina is only the beginning, Scott says, and the race is far from over. “In fact,” he writes, “it’s really just a minor skirmish compared with what’s to come.” An even bigger day comes March 1, and with more in next couple weeks after that. “Marco’s going to need a huge amount of resources to build up his national campaign — that’s why we’ve set an ambitious goal of raising $300,000 by the time the polls close tonight.” Who can argue with ambition, especially on primary day? Scott adds that not only is Rubio a “good friend and would make an awesome president,” but the stakes “couldn’t be higher” in 2016. “After two terms of President Obama, we need a conservative Republican nominee who has a vision for restoring the American Dream that’s defined my life, and Marco’s,” Scott says. “Will you go here to help make sure Marco gets to be that candidate?” Primary votes may be one thing, but cold hard cash is quite another. Scott’s support is no small feat; he is the first black Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate from the former Confederate States since Reconstruction. Scott’s endorsement, along with that of Gov. Nikki Haley, provides an essential sign of GOP diversity in a state with a large African-American population. “Make no mistake: This is a big endorsement for Rubio. Scott is very popular in South Carolina,” CNN had reported February 1. “Scott held town halls with every candidate in the lead-up to the primaries, and maintained an unbiased position on all of them.” Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
