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Ted Cruz Quietly Seeks Peace With GOP's Big Spenders (Donors, not Politicians)
National Journal ^ | December 15, 2014 | Tim Alberta

Posted on 12/15/2014 6:54:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The Texas Republican has traveled to both coasts in the hopes of winning over skeptical donors.

There's a downside to digging in. Just ask Ted Cruz.

Since being elected to Congress in 2012, the Texas Republican has established himself as a conservative icon. On everything from spending fights to immigration policy and social issues, Cruz has been a powerful and reliable voice of the far right. His push last year to defund Obamacare—which shuttered the government—cemented his image as an uncompromising champion of the tea party.

But now, as he prepares a presidential bid, Cruz needs to round out the rough edges. While his confrontations on Capitol Hill continue to energize the activist class, his reputation as an ideologically driven renegade is scaring off a key set of influentials: the major Republican donors needed to finance a winning presidential campaign.

"I get the impression that Ted Cruz appeals almost exclusively to the far right of the base, and that he has not attempted to really reach out either to his colleagues in the Senate or to donors who are not in that group," said Fred Malek, a top Republican fundraiser who chaired Sen. John McCain's finance operation in 2008.

The foundation of a Cruz presidential campaign looks solid. He has brought in strong organizational talent. His alliances are multiplying in the early nominating states. And his standing among the grassroots has never been better. But one important area remains a source of concern: fundraising.

It's a vulnerability Cruz is working to address. Earlier this month, the senator slipped away to Los Angeles for a series of meetings with top GOP donors, a trip that included a dinner at the California Club with a group of some 20 Republicans who served as bundlers for Mitt Romney in 2012.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt moderated the event, and said many of the attendees—whom he described as "Steve Forbes Republicans"—came away impressed. "There were blunt electability questions," Hewitt said. By the time Cruz departed the dinner, he added, "they were all very, very pleasantly surprised."

Hewitt declined to repeat Cruz's argument for his own electability, but said: "He's in the process of proving to people that he's more Reagan than Goldwater. Opponents of his want to stick the Goldwater tag on him, so his challenge is proving that he's more Reagan than Goldwater."

The California swing came on the heels of a whirlwind tour through Manhattan in late November, which included a lengthy one-on-one meeting with GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Cruz aimed in both trips to correct what he calls a media-driven "caricature" of himself—one that took hold last year after he spearheaded a strategy to defund the Affordable Care Act that ultimately led to a government shutdown.

Despite the recent coastal visits, Cruz's charm offensive begins in his own backyard, with some of the same Texas donors who shunned him two years ago.

Cruz shocked the political world in 2012 with his primary victory over Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, an establishment favorite who outraised Cruz by a ratio of more than 3-to-1. Conservative outside groups helped drive a flurry of small, out-of-state donations to Cruz, but he was walloped among large-dollar donors. That experience makes for an inspiring David-versus-Goliath tale, but it's not a winning model for a White House campaign. Team Cruz knows that grassroots enthusiasm can only take a candidate so far; to be viable for a party's presidential nomination, major donors must be in play.

"Sen. Cruz's team is more recently—like, within the last few months—reaching out more to the donors and business leaders and community leaders to start building those relationships," said Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, a veteran of the Texas delegation. "His first year was really spent building a national persona and image, and it's my impression that he's now laying the groundwork in Texas."

Brady said it will take time for Cruz to make inroads with these donors, but added that the senator has "a wonderful, not-so-secret weapon" at his disposal: his wife. Heidi Nelson Cruz is a top executive with Goldman Sachs; she also serves on the Greater Houston Partnership Board, an organization full of political contributors. "She's well-respected and has lots of admirers," Brady said. "So that could be part of the reaching out—whether it's Wall Street or Texas."

Brady, himself a master fundraiser with deep connections to the political spenders in Dallas and Houston, said the donor community has taken notice of the freshman senator's newfound interest in their campaign dollars.

Cruz's outreach, however, has not produced an instant conversion among the GOP's donor elite. Adelson found Cruz to be "too right wing," according the New York Observer. (Adelson later disputed that characterization, but it seemed to be a recurring theme during Cruz's swing through New York. At another meeting in Manhattan, he answered a similar assertion by saying: "I don't think I'm all that conservative.")

And the senator's latest confrontation on Capitol Hill—provoking a weekend session of Congress that was aimed at making a point on immigration but resulted in more of President Obama's nominees being confirmed—will only play into the negative stereotype that's scaring off potential financiers of Cruz's presidential campaign.

"His views, as well as his actions," Malek said, "are a lot further to the right than the mainstream of Republican donors."

Cruz's allies acknowledge that he isn't likely to win over most of these donors anyway; his record of intra-party troublemaking is disqualifying for many establishment Republicans looking for a quick, clean primary contest. What Cruz hopes to accomplish, then, is perhaps something less tangible—if not converting neutral players into loyal supporters, at least softening opposition to the point where an "anyone-but-Cruz" campaign never gets off the ground.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; State and Local; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: 2016; cruz; gop; tedcruz
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To: SkyPilot

Are you serious with that statement or did you forget the sarc. tag? (Heck, you might find somebody here who might even think that you meant it.)


21 posted on 12/15/2014 7:23:43 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You nailed it. Both of those sick screwballs I’m guessin....


22 posted on 12/15/2014 7:24:56 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: SkyPilot

You can tell the boys at Jeb Bush headquarters we’re not buying your garbage. Now do us all a favor and go cry on some RINO website where you belong.


23 posted on 12/15/2014 7:27:59 PM PST by dowcaet
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To: Menthops

If more repubs had standards, a spine, character like Cruz & Lee, we might be making progress. Repub LIBs and “moderates” have always hated Conservatives. Screw’em.


24 posted on 12/15/2014 7:28:26 PM PST by ogen hal (First Amendment or reeducation camp)
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To: dowcaet

Outstanding! Best FR December Troll beatdown yet! Ouch!


25 posted on 12/15/2014 7:40:38 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: dowcaet

The heck with you. I don’t work for Bush or anyone else. I could accuse you of working for Ted, but then I would be as low as you.


26 posted on 12/15/2014 7:44:05 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot

Who do you support in 2016 Eric?


27 posted on 12/15/2014 7:44:28 PM PST by wardaddy (glenn beck is a nauseous politically correct conservative on LSD)
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To: SkyPilot

Ted is a good, born again Christian man.


28 posted on 12/15/2014 7:47:01 PM PST by ansel12
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To: bobby.223
Sorry, I don't fulfill the status of your political enemy. I am a military retired successful father Christian Republican White man. What do you want to do to destroy me?

I am sure you will think of something.

29 posted on 12/15/2014 7:47:31 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: ansel12

I think Ted is. Thank you. I love his rhetoric. The problem is, he screwed us all over in the Senate, by his own ego! And THAT is not an exaggeration.


30 posted on 12/15/2014 7:50:07 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot

Follow along for a basic explanation of what has transpired.

Cloture votes occur in the order they are filed, but after disposition of each bill or nomination that is the subject of the cloture petition.

For example, if Reid files cloture on bill A and bill B, one after the other, cloture on B only occurs after both cloture and passage of A.

Cloture, remember, is the procedure to cut off debate — not a vote on actual passage.

Last night Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the CROmnibus.

-Today he is going through procedural votes to file cloture on a number of nominations.

Under Senate rules though, both cloture and final passage of the CROmnibus must occur before the cloture votes on nominations can happen.

Therefore, we will be in the same place by Monday as we would be if Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) hadn't objected to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

A Senate source outside the Cruz and Lee offices with direct knowledge of the behind the scenes conversations tells me, “GOP leadership knew Reid was going to file cloture on up to 20 controversial nominations yesterday afternoon before they tried to move CROmnibus votes to Monday. They told us the process to clear non-controversial nominations had broken down because Reid was going to file cloture on these nominations. So they knew this was going to happen regardless.”

Another Senate source outside the Cruz and Lee offices tells me, “These guys are using Manu (a Politico reporter) as their stenographer. They’re really just pissed they have to work this weekend and that’s it. You can certainly tell who their friends are out in pundit land.”



31 posted on 12/15/2014 7:52:33 PM PST by Bratch
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To: SkyPilot

I’m still not clear on what he is supposed to have lost us in the Senate, what results did he change?


32 posted on 12/15/2014 7:53:54 PM PST by ansel12
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To: Bratch
Link to above.

Senate GOP Leaders and Their Pro-Amnesty Pundit Friends Find Harry Reid’s S**t Sandwich Quite Tasty


33 posted on 12/15/2014 7:54:59 PM PST by Bratch
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To: SkyPilot

The key to being taken seriously is to make statements with at least some small connection to reality.


34 posted on 12/15/2014 8:01:13 PM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: SkyPilot
All Ted did was get us more liberal nominees in a dead Senate. Thanks Ted. It’s all about you.

Did you forget the sarcasm tag or are you really buying the liberal spin?

35 posted on 12/15/2014 8:02:34 PM PST by CAluvdubya (<------- has now left CA for NV, where God and guns have not been outlawed! Molon Labe)
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To: CAluvdubya

See Post #21. GMTA!


36 posted on 12/15/2014 8:10:41 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: SkyPilot

T.B.Y.S.P.P.


37 posted on 12/15/2014 8:12:12 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: SkyPilot
SkyPilot:"..Harry Reid is laughing. Had this not happened, the GOP controlled Senate in January would have been able to STOP these liberal nominees who will do (have no doubt about this) lasting DAMAGE to our nation."

You are drinking right from the media lip-service if you beleive that Harry was going to wait for presentation of the liberal nominees.
This excuse presented by the media was , and is subtrefuge.
Do you honestly believe that Harry, inventor of "THE NUCLEAR OPTION" to violate tradition Senate rules, plays by the rules ?
Harry , the keeper of the pocket veto , who then lambastes Congress for not passing many bills, when in fact he sits on them.
A cheat always cheats ! A liar always lies ! You can't be that niave,.. or else , you are purposely obtuse

38 posted on 12/15/2014 8:13:50 PM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: bobby.223

LOL! There is just no other sane explanation if not sarcasm...


39 posted on 12/15/2014 8:33:03 PM PST by CAluvdubya (<------- has now left CA for NV, where God and guns have not been outlawed! Molon Labe)
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To: SkyPilot

What are you talking about?


40 posted on 12/15/2014 8:36:48 PM PST by uncitizen (our government is treasonous)
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