Posted on 02/14/2016 8:39:26 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The senator's super PACs have launched an unprecedented ground effort in South Carolina and seem intent on going where few super PACs have gone before--door knocking.
We all know super PACs have permanently changed the face of American politics. But in South Carolina, right now, we're getting a preview of the unprecedented ways they can alter a campaign.
South Carolina, as you may know, is kind of a big deal. It has a large population--4.8 million people--and a bad reputation because it's a place where candidates love to break out their dirtiest tricks.
Or, in the case of Ted Cruz's super PACs, their most experimental. The cluster of well-funded super PACs boosting Cruz's candidacy is trying out a new tactic in the Palmetto State, indicating the extent to which super PACs are encroaching on traditional campaign turf.
And it has Cruz's rivals scared.
Said super PAC, called Keep the Promise--which is actually sub-divided into several different PACs, each funded by a different billionaire family--has blithely tossed the traditional super PAC playbook to the winds. In fact, they've taken on typical campaign operations: gathering voter data, targeting likely Cruz supporters, and knocking on thousands of doors to get out the vote.
The super PAC has had upwards of 250 people canvassing the state, targeting the homes of persuadable Republican voters. Thus far, they estimate they've knocked on more than 93,000 doors. And by Election Day, they're shooting to have knocked on 100,000. In any given week, they say, 100 to 150 individual people spend eight-hour days doing the door-knocking. And most of them get paid.
Traditionally--to the extent that we have age-old super PAC traditions--super PACs pay for expensive TV and radio ads. Federal election law forbids them from coordinating with the campaigns they try to boost, so shelling out big bucks to produce and air TV ads has been their natural role. And that's what most of them have done in this cycle--from a pro-Rubio super PAC running birther-esque ads ominously intimating that Cruz is darkly influenced by his Canadian roots, to the pro-Bush Right to Rise PAC, which got President George W. Bush to star in a spot boosting Jeb.
That's the norm. Campaigns run events, corral volunteers, and staff regional offices; super PACs slap up ads.
South Carolina politicos describe it as an effective, relentless operation. And it has some of Cruz's opponents feeling a little jittery.
"I'll be very shocked, honestly, if Ted Cruz doesn't win the primary," said an operative for a rival campaign, citing Keep the Promise's blanketing of the Upstate.
Trump has led by double digits in all the recent Palmetto State polls. But some are skeptical that his lead is really that commanding. And they point to the different ground games--particularly, to that of Keep the Promise--as evidence for their doubt.
Keep the Promise staff explained that the group has been door-knocking across the state, in a few targeted regions and counties, since last November. In early January, those door-knockers started focusing on persuasion: identifying likely Republican primary voters who favor an Evangelical Christian candidate, knocking on their doors, and having conversations aimed at persuading them to back Cruz.
"What we are doing right now is what I dreamed about doing as Scott Walker's state director," said Dan Tripp, who formerly helmed Walker's South Carolina operation and now runs the show there for Keep the Promise.
"It's hard, dirty work," Tripp said. "If we're asking somebody to go out and knock on doors for 8 hours, that's a lot of gas, that's a lot of time and it's hard work. So we've built a budget around paying our canvassers."
The ease with which super PACs can raise money--no contribution limits, no spending limits--means groups like Keep the Promise have resources that campaigns may not. In the case of Keep the Promise, that's thanks to a handful of billionaire families who decided Cruz was their guy. One Keep the Promise backer, Robert Mercer, is a hedge fund billionaire who keeps a very low profile and has drawn criticism for tax-dodging. Keep the Promise supporters also include Dan and Farris Wilks, brothers from Central Texas who made their first billion thanks to the fracking boom and have invested their wealth in supporting social conservative groups and candidates.
Thanks to their largesse, Keep the Promise has been able to pay a mobile army of door-knockers and voter-persuaders.
"There is nothing fun about doing a get-out-the-vote push," said Katon Dawson, formerly a Rick Perry operative in South Carolina, noting that he was also impressed by the super PAC's efforts. "It's the hardest work you can do in any campaign. It's hard, it's expensive."
Now, the Cruz campaign itself is also doing door-knocking and canvassing. But Tripp said he isn't worried about redundancy; while voters often get irritated by millions of robo-calls about a candidate, they're less likely to snap at someone at the face of a sympathetic human being slogging through their neighborhood in January. And the PAC may have an even farther reach than the campaign proper
Matt Moore, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party said the PAC may have an even farther reach than the campaign proper since Keep the Promise is the first and only long-term, large-scale super PAC canvassing operation in the state.
And he knows firsthand just how effective it is.
"His team even appeared at my parents-in-laws home in suburban South Carolina," he said. "To my knowledge, they're the only campaign that has been to their home."
He added that Keep the Promise is the only super PAC he knows of that has any sort of ground game in the state. Paul Lindsay, a representative for Right to Rise, said his PAC also has a professional canvassing operation that recently moved down from New Hampshire to South Carolina. But it hasn't made nearly the splash with locals as Keep the Promise.
And the Keep the Promise team is pretty confident that their ground game tops that of their closest rival, Donald Trump. The mogul's team has sent RVs of volunteers around the Upstate door-knocking. But Tripp said those efforts are more about marketing than anything else.
"We're not gonna punch down when it comes to the ground game," he said of the Trump efforts. "Honestly, I don't think they've been much competition at all."
There is just no way that anyone can best Trump in the smarm event, not even a lawyer from Texas.
Your reading comprehension needs work. That is Jeb’s PAC they were talking about moving down from NH.
Or Anthony Weiner’s?
I'd blame autocorrect.
I know that Ted Cruz was recently seen publicly masticating at lunch.
I seriously doubt it is keeping track by IP address. Otherwise, any organization using network address translation would only have one Parton able to vote, regardless of how many computers they had.
Whatever makes you think that Trump is a consistent conservative? I’d die laughing — if I wasn’t concerned for my country. A longtime liberal, Democrat, pro-abortion, pro-gun control guy (Trump) is suddenly the friend of conservative limited government Republicans.
At least Ted, as you call him, isn’t endorsed in any way by Bob Dole, Jimmy Carter and Scott Brown. Why do these little RINO or leftist types like Trump over Cruz? What do they know that you and the other Trump supporters don’t know? If Carter and Dole liked my candidate, I WOULD BE VERY FEARFUL, but the Trump supporters aren’t wise enough to figure this out.
It can't overcome that kind of a lead ever, now that New Hampshire's primary is over...
Except his secret army communicates via cell phone, and not door-to-door...
The poster has stated it was an intentional choice. Obviously, they were having fun with the level of ‘charges’ being sensationalized against Cruz.
Yeah, but I hadn’t read that far yet when I first responded. I’ve made up for it.
“I seriously doubt it is keeping track by IP address. ...”
I am not a web guy. I was actually making fun of a Teddy Bare that was bragging to have voted 8 times. I did post the result of my trying to vote a second time, 2 days later. It;s funny that many Cruz supporters have made that claim, but their guy still LOSES!
Thank you.
These people — Trump supporters — are BEYOND BELIEF.
They call Cruz a liar for saying that Trump won’t preserve their Second Amendment rights. Who does Trump himself say he would appoint or consider appointing to the SC — his pro-abortion, baby-killing sister who is federal judge and the judge who went after Roy Moore. Great. These are the judges who would destroy our Second Amendment rights. Cruz, on the other hand, helped save our Second Amendment rights in the Heller case. I would imagine they don’t even know what the Heller case is all about — or maybe they’re paid by Trump’s campaign.
This ‘quid pro who’s argument against diners is weird to me when coming from trump supporters.
It’s like saying’our guy is buying it directly. He should own government by himself’
Perhaps those other billionaires have motivation not unlike your preferred candidate but put their trust in A candidate who they believe will do it right.
If I had billions that’s how I would do it.
If all billionaires spend their own money to purchase favor in government, what is trump buying other than sole access to the executive branch? Do you think it’s altruistic because he cares about you?
Imagine the sweetheart deals his company will make...
OK, I don’t particularly like Jeff Rose, but why don’t you give us a link for your proof of charges in the first graph.
NOW WHY IN THE HELL DO YOU SUPPORT TRUMP — a serial adulterer and strip club owner? From a moral standpoint, he’s Bill Clinton without the sexual assaults. Two marriages busted by mistresses and he’s on marriage 3. YUCK.
What I said was that Ted Cruz is the consistent Conservative. Everyone knows the Donald Trump is not a consistent Conservative. Trump would upset everything! That is not conservative!
Cruz’s father wasn’t a slumlord...
But he is sort of spooky.
Excellent points. Why is it that Trump supported Mitch McConell — and that Bob Dole, Jimmy Carter, and Scott Brown all like Trump over Cruz? What have these folks figured out that Trump’s supporters STILL DON’T GET?
Raally smarmy Texas lawyer? Let’s talk about your serial adulterer, strip club owner and long-time Democrat Donald Trump? He has been an enemy of conservatives for most of his life; now he’s our friend. Who is the sucker here — The Cruz supporters or the Trump supporters?
Trump presently has a 20 point lead on the RCP poll average in South Carolina.
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