Free Republic

A quiet but intense struggle over money and influence is roiling the Republican Party just as the 2014 election season is getting underway. At least a dozen “super PACs” are setting up to back individual Republican candidates for the United States Senate, challenging the strategic and financial dominance that Karl Rove and the group he co-founded, American Crossroads, have enjoyed ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 cleared the way for unlimited independent spending. In wooing donors, the new groups — in states like Texas, Iowa, West Virginia and Louisiana — are exploiting Crossroads’ poor showing in...

The Justice Department has reportedly delayed until next year a decision on whether to indict outgoing Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife in connection with a gifts scandal — a decision that came after a face-to-face appeal by the couple’s lawyers. A report by The Washington Post late Wednesday night said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente told lawyers for the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell a week ago that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment by this past Monday over allegedly inappropriate help they gave dietary supplement maker Star Scientific after receiving gifts from...

The liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) this year promised corporate donors a chance to meet Hillary Rodham Clinton in return for a $250,000 donation, documents obtained by The Hill show. The meeting never happened, though Clinton spoke at the anniversary gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium that was cited on the solicitation. “None of the patrons were able to meet with Secretary Clinton but our board and trustees did meet with her at the event,” said Andrea Purse, a CAP spokeswoman. The documents ask prospective donors to contribute to CAP’s “Progressive Party,” which was held Oct. 24 to...

Wow! It's been ten or so years since I followed an FR fundraising thread. The dedication, the technichal dexterity, the shear perseverence of the leaders is just astounding and humbling. I believe, the last time I was really paid attention, there was a discussion concerning the servers to be purchased, the support required for such, and the necessity for funding. Back in those days I would provide some dusty nugget bumps that were a year or two old.I hadn't any idea of the requirments to support the servers. The cost was astounding. Meanwhile, Prodigy died off, Prodigy Internet died off,...

There may not be a more painful oxymoron than "feminist comedian." MTV flash-in-the-pan Sarah Silverman and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" co-creator Lizz Winstead teamed up in New York City on Nov. 18 for a telethon to fund abortions in Texas via NARAL Pro-Choice America. Think Jerry's Kids -- children assisted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association -- except instead of saving them, the unborn are eliminated. They call that "reproductive justice." Silverman and Winstead appeared together that night on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," where Hayes described the event as a "telethon to help Texas women trying to...

Barack Obama, doing what he does best, is back campaigning and fundraising hard for the next five weeks. Obama’s plans include eight fundraisers for Democrats in the House and Senate. The events include: 1. New York: Fundraising for House Democrats and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). 2. Boston: a House Democratic fundraiser on Oct. 30. 3. November 6, Dallas: No: another fundraiser 4. November 8, Miami: an event for Senate Democrats. 5. November 14, Philadelphia: another event for Senate Democrats 6. Seattle: fundraising for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) 7. San Francisco: more fundraising for House Democrats. 8. Los...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants President Barack Obama to know that he should “take his broken promises tour elsewhere,” according to a statement his office released Wednesday, just hours before Obama is supposed to speak in the Lone Star State. “President Obama’s trip to Texas brings nothing with it but broken promises,” the freshman Republican senator said in the statement. “He promised that Americans could keep their health care plans. We were told premiums would go down, that jobs would be created. And we now know these are all false promises.” Cruz’s comments come as the president visits Dallas to...

How the heck did that happen? Most public polls leading up to Election Day had Democrat Terry McAuliffe coasting to victory, some by double digits, in the Virginia governor’s race. Instead he squeaked by, beating Republican Ken Cuccinelli by less than 3 percentage points. -snip- McAuliffe outraised Cuccinelli by almost $15 million, and he used the cash advantage to pummel him on the airwaves. A lack of resources forced the Republican to go dark in the D.C. media market during the final two weeks. The Republican National Committee spent about $3 million on Virginia this year, compared to $9 million...

Over the next several weeks President Obama will be working hard…working hard to get Nancy Pelosi back in the Speaker’s seat. Well let’s be fair, he will be campaigning for Mrs. Pelosi along with three Democratic Party committees, the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC. President Obama will be fitting in at least 9 fundraisers in the next month. The trip started here in Washington this past Thursday evening at the DNC’s Women’s Leadership Forum. The small group of 30 contributors paid over $30,000 each to attend the fundraiser. Friday he was in New York to be the headliner at events for...

The Democratic National Committee has narrowly edged its Republican rival in fundraising for the first time all year. In a Sunday release, the Republican National Committee reported raising $7.1 million in September. Democrats on Friday reported a cash haul of nearly $7.4 million in September, while finishing the month with more than $5 million on hand.

Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers. In conversation after conversation, donors express growing frustration with the party and the constellation of outside groups they’ve been bankrolling. After getting squeezed last year by an array of campaign committees, party committees and disparate super PACs, many of them are still...

The First Amendment protects assembly, speech and the resources that make speech possible. Yet the rules governing political speech in the United States are fraught with limits, red tape and restrictions so complex that the average person is deterred or unable to engage in the process. The Supreme Court has long recognized that limits on campaign contributions infringe on First Amendment rights. This week, the court is considering whether there is a compelling government interest in limiting the size of political contributions that justifies those intrusions on the right to free speech. On Oct. 8, the Supreme Court heard oral...

How did the Republican Party become so splintered and so infused with hard-line conservatives? Don't blame redistricting. Don't chalk it up to anti-Obama fervor.Republicans have become an unruly bunch of scorched-earth conservatives because the Tea Party smashed the business lobby's monopoly on GOP fundraising.Here's a story of where the GOP used to be:Back in 2006, I asked a couple of conservative Republican congressmen to give blurbs for my book on corporate welfare. “My boss loves the book,” one of their top aides said, “but we’re not going to put his name on it." Why not, I asked. "Who do you...

This story is just perfect — particularly in light of the party’s endemic debt denialism, and the personal financial straits of its chairwoman: There’s another budget crisis in Washington, and it’s unfolding inside the Democratic party. The Democratic National Committee remains so deeply in the hole from spending in the last election that it is struggling to pay its own vendors.It is a highly unusual state of affairs for a national party — especially one that can deploy the President as its fundraiser-in-chief – and it speaks to the quiet but serious organizational problems the party has yet to address...

RedState Readers, there was a time when we could ask you to open your wallets for solid candidates and within hours goals would be met. We did that recently with Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia and you showed just how quickly you could raise money. But people still think you guys are not as engaged as you once were. So I have a challenge for you this morning — show the world conservatives are not disengaged. But more importantly, show the world you’ll do what it takes to fund reinforcements for Ted Cruz in the United States Senate. There are two...

Dear GOP, You've pulled the football away from us for the last time. From now on, my default preference in ANY election is no longer Republican. I will vote for select individuals whom I think I can trust, not who feed me a line of B.S. and then back away when safely ensconced in office. No yard signs. No contributions. No responding to polls. No personal campaigning among family and friends. No more holding my nose to vote for a moderate, RINO or 'the-lesser-of-two-evils'. I did that in an effort to avoid what I considered the worst-possible candidate for President...

The Democrats’ one best hope at a competitive Senate race in Georgia is already exhibiting signs of weakness. Since her July announcement, Michelle Nunn’s nascent campaign has sought branding grounded in entrenched Georgia political roots, thanks to her famous father, while ensuring daylight between party and president. The Points of Light CEO made no mention of party affiliation in a campaign announcement email, and a two-week tour across the state, dubbed “What Washington Can Learn From Georgia,” appeared more akin to her career in nonprofits than a show of political force. Yet an increasing slew of unforced errors is undermining...

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Terry McAuliffe just sent out a fundraising email. He clearly does not like RedState readers or me. Sounds like he is jealous of what we did for Ken Cuccinelli. Let me provide you the text: Do you recognize the name Erick Erickson? I wouldn’t be surprised if your answer is “no.” He’s an ultra-conservative blogger who popped up on the radar earlier this week when he called Texas State Senator Wendy Davis “Abortion Barbie,” a disgusting comment that’s not remotely out of his character. And then yesterday, Erickson raised $10,000 in...

BOSTON (AP) — She's yet to say whether she'll run, but a group working to support Hillary Rodham Clinton's prospective presidential bid raised more than $1 million in June alone. The Ready for Hillary super PAC has accepted donations exceeding $1.25 million since beginning to raise money in earnest this spring, an official with the group confirmed Tuesday. The figure includes more than $1 million last month as the operation begins to ramp up.

The American Association for Justice Convention at the Hilton in San Francisco this week has brought hords to town — hords of politicians. And we’re betting they’re not so much interested in AAJC’s panel discussions on more kinds of litigation than you ever thought possible — from Super Storm Sandy to bladder cancer, antidepressants to motorcycle lawsuits — than they are in being here in the Mother Lode of political fundraising. After all, the convention is conveniently located just a stone’s throw from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and all that Silicon Valley money — not to mention America’s Cup action that...