Cruz super PAC launches seven-figure, nationwide ad campaign

The Washington Post's Post Politics ^ | August 4, 2015 | Katie Zezima

[2ndDivisionVet]

A super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) launched television ads Tuesday, the start of a seven-figure, nationwide ad blitz for the candidate.

One of four super PACs supporting Cruz will spend millions this year on television, digital and radio ads both nationwide and in early primary and caucus states. The super PAC, Keep the Promise I, received $11 million from Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund magnate. It also received $5,000 from William Lee Hanley Jr. of the Lexington Management Group, which franchises hotels.

"Ted Cruz has proven that he won't back down from fighting to protect our country, to uphold the rule of law, or to demand an end to the cronyism so common in government today. Senator Cruz is a rebel with a cause, a cause that demands our Constitution be defended, that our  nation’s exceptionalism  be heralded, that government stop spending money it doesn’t have, and that true freedom and opportunity be within reach for all Americans. Ted Cruz is the leader we stand behind," said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster who is serving as president of Keep the Promise I(continued)

[gov_bean_ counter]

Boom!

[SoConPubbie]

    Ted Cruz Ping!

    If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
    Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

    CRUZ or LOSE!

[uncbob]

Great news

[Patton@Bastogne]

Ted Cruz needs to get OUT of the single-digit territory ...

[TNMOUTH]

Thanks :-)

Great news!

[TNMOUTH]

Cruz is out of that territory...the “polls” might not show it, but his fund raising and ground game prove otherwise

[nascarnation]

I seem Cruz, Bush, and Trump as the three going the distance, mostly based on $$$.

[Jack Black]

I seem Cruz, Bush, and Trump as the three going the distance, mostly based on $$$.

It's a very different world than before Citizen's United. Before you had to have an organization to get the bundlers who were the only way to get to millions of dollars. And the bundlers needed to have hundreds of people willing to donate the max: $2500, so upper middle class to millionaire range.

Now one Billionaire can fund a single candidate. We saw this in 2012 with Sheldon Addelson and Newt Gingrich.

So I would say any of the major candidates, even someone as implausible as Dr. Ben Carson, could stay in for the duration with one or a few super-rich donors willing to spend the cash.

Of course you have to be making some progress for even the most dedicated billionaire to support you. Newt won 15% of the popular vote in the primaries, about 1/2 way between Rick Santorum (roughly 20%) and Ron Paul (roughly 10%). He only won the plurality of delegates in Georgia and South Carolina, though. So he wasn't really close.

Why do you discount Scott Walker?

He's arguably in second place behind Trump, and best positioned to pick up the pieces of Trump implodes. I beleive he's got some pretty rich backers. He just was at the Koch conclave. Koch donated a lot to his three Gov. runs, so I would expect they are willing to help him if he's consistently in 2nd or 3rd place.

I expect Walker to remain in for a long time. Right now the top tier is Walker, Bush and Trump. He has to be pretty happy with that. And, of course, he's leading by a nice margin in Iowa. South Carolina is his weakness.

As someone above said, Cruz has to get out of single digits to stay in the race. Otherwise he's going to be a Ron Paul type of candidate. Which is not what he wants.

[RinaseaofDs]

Walker is squishy, like Rubio. Especially on immigration. That’s the perception. I’d love to be wrong.

[Jack Black]

Could be. Numbers USA, who is a reliable org in my experience, rates him a bit higher than Cruz, Trump and Bush.

Too bad about Santorum. It's interesting that he finished second in 2012, won a bunch of states -- and has zero momentum and didn't even make the main event tongiht.

But then, personally I never really warmed up to him, and he was kind of hung with "opposes birth control", which is obviously a losing position in the General election. I suspect it's not true, but he got in the hole and kept digging.

[Jack Black]

Cruz is out of that (single digit) territory...the “polls” might not show it, but his fund raising and ground game prove otherwise.

The polls show what the polls show, Ted's in single digits.

While any individual poll might be inconclusive, when averaged out over time they do show what's happening out there. And what's happening is about 6% of people support Ted. He's sitting in the number 6 position at the debates tonight.

Fundraising isn't the same as convincing the mass of people to support you, or else we would have had Sen. Phil Graham as our nominee, and many others who led in fundraising at various points.

If fundraising is that important though, you need to include Rubio, he's about where Cruz is. And of course Bush is ahead of everyone.

Cruz's ground game does look excellent! I check FR for Cruz articles daily and he's announcing campaign staffs in multiple states. While I think money is over-rated, I think ground-game is under-rated. So, I agree he will go further than his current 6th place position indicate. The real question is "what States can Ted Cruz win?".

I think he is the nominal leader in Texas (all polls are pre-Trump though), which is nice, but what other ones.

The GOP nominating process is still structurally unfavorable to Conservatives. All the States that gave us McCain and, to a lesser extent Romney, are poised to support someone other than Cruz this time. (Jeb? Rubio? someone who doesn't scare the horses.) Cruz isn't gonna win the North East. Can he win in the midwest? (Against Kucinich and Walker?)... Can he win in the South?

You can't win the nomination finished third or second a bunch of times.

If it goes to a brokered convention I can't see them choosing Cruz, he's too much disliked by the party leaders, who would have a lot of control in that situation.

So his route to victory is very difficult in my estimation, but he's doing the right stuff to overcome the obstacles. It still looks unlikely to me that there is a path there for him.

[deport]

So his route to victory is very difficult in my estimation, but he’s doing the right stuff to
overcome the obstacles. It still looks unlikely to me that there is a path there for him.

***************

My opinion it may take a couple of cycles for him to become known nationally
and locally to the extent he’s a contender. Heck he’s only been elected and
on the national scene for some 2 1/2 years.

[amihow]

It is Citizens United and it’s ugly children which allows big corporations and big money to pour millions of dollars into these pacs. Do not try to say Cruz is not a corporatist!

You supportive Freepers are not going to likethe result of this.

[Jack Black]

I think we can safely say the following people are not going to be President:

CLUB "NO MOMENTUM"
Santorum
Fiorina
Jindal
Graham

CLUB "MISTAKES WERE MADE"
Christie
Perry

CLUB "HIGH WATER MARK"
Huckabee
Carson
Paul

Which leaves the three Tier 1 leaders Trump, Walker and Bush as the most likely and ...

CLUB "MISSION POSSIBLE"
Cruz
Rubio
Kasich

I think the VP slot could go to some of people in the "No Momentum" and "Possible" clubs.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Boom!

[TNMOUTH]

They won’t nominate Trump either if the convention is brokered.

Ok, the polls are the polls. If we believed the polls, Cain would be President right now...or at least the nominee. Those with money play the longest...Cruz has that. Also, when Trump is exposed and guys like Huckabee and Carson fade, Cruz will be the only Conservative alternative. About those polls...look at WHO is being polled. The internals tell you everything you need to know. Most are not Republican polls...but if you look at Conservative ones, like Breitbart, etc, Cruz wins...he wins with actual voters.

Rubio isn’t that close to Cruz in fundraising. I don’t have the numbers, but I don’t think he is close.

It is way too early to predict who will win in certain states. Heck, Cruz was in 5th in MN...that is GREAT. My opinion is that by the time of the elections, Cruz will be in the top 3 in IA, Win SC, TX, CA, and most of the South. He will also surprise in Florida.

If Cruz stays on message, and with the massive ad buy that he has starting now, he will be fine. I could be wrong, but I think Cruz comes out better than we think...

Remember, he wasn’t even supposed to beat Dewhurst in TX.

[Jack Black]

They won’t nominate Trump either if the convention is brokered.

Truer words were never spoken! Someone like Kasich or Jeb would win. Who ever came in with the most delegates would stand the best chance of wining, despite not crossing the threshold.

Also, don't underestimate how nefarious the State GOP organizations are. If you look at the Wikipeidia article you will see that Mitt's convention delegate vote was way above what he actually won.

Without rehashing a lot of bad memories, here in Washington the State Party essentially disenfranchised Paul and Santorum delegates to send a more 'unified' slate to the convention. It was a fugly process in the extreme, and really nothing consequential was at stake, but they still did it.

If someone like Jeb has to squeeze delegates out of state conventions he did not earn to garner the nomination on the first round, he will do so.

That would be the final straw for me. Not only would I not vote for him in such a situation, I would seriously consider voting for the Beast just to f'em.

[Isara]

Our Standard: The Constitution

Ted Cruz has spent a lifetime fighting to defend the Constitution — our nation’s founding document and the supreme law of the land — which was crafted by our founding fathers to act as chains to bind the mischief of government and to protect the liberties endowed to us by our Creator.

Religious Liberty

• Defended Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties against Obamacare’s contraception mandate.
• Led the way on several cases including a U.S. Supreme Court case that preserved the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Successfully defended the words “under God” in the Texas Pledge of Allegiance and Texas schools’ moment of silence law in federal district court.
• Galvanized national support for Houston pastors who had been subpoenaed by the City of Houston to provide the content of their sermons forcing the City to back down.
• Supported the right of students to display banners containing religious content at school sporting events.
• Successfully defended the constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument, winning a 5-4 landmark decision before the U.S. Supreme Court, setting an important national precedent for the right to display similar monuments.
• Fought to help the Boy Scouts of America to reverse a district court ruling barring them from leasing a public park.

Second Amendment

• Played a crucial role in preventing federal legislation to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
• Authored legislation to strengthen the Second Amendment rights of Americans by allowing interstate firearms sales.
• Led 31 states in District of Columbia v. Heller where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban on firearms in a 5-4 landmark decision.
  • Honored by the National Rifle Association with a 2008 resolution for his leadership in the Heller case, which noted that his “efforts made this victory for the American people possible.”
  • Awarded the NRA’s 2010 Carter-Knight Freedom Fund, which “rewards exemplary activities in the support and protection of the right to Keep and Bear Arms” for his work in the Heller and McDonald cases.
• Argued against unreasonable and burdensome gun restrictions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
• Recognized by NRA executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre who observed, “Ted Cruz is one of our nation’s leading defenders of the Second Amendment. For over a decade, Ted has fought tirelessly to defend our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and his leadership was absolutely critical to our major victories before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

U.S. Sovereignty

• Fought and won a landmark ruling for U.S. sovereignty in Medellin v. Texas at the U.S. Supreme Court against 90 foreign nations and the President to ensure the supremacy of U.S. legal system against encroachment by international treaties and rulings of the “World Court.”
• Cosponsored a resolution urging the president not to sign the UN Arms Treaty, which would have subordinated the Second Amendments rights of American citizens to global interests.

Government Overreach

• Called for a special prosecutor to investigate the targeting of conservatives by the IRS.

 

More Proven Records:

• STRONGER, SAFER AMERICA
• LIFE, MARRIAGE & FAMILY
• JOBS & OPPORTUNITY

[Jack Black]

Rubio isn’t that close to Cruz in fundraising. I don’t have the numbers, but I don’t think he is close.

As of July 15 Cruz was at $52M and Rubio at $44. (For comparison Bush is at $114M). Here's the article at CNN.