To the next level.
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."
To the next level.
Would you vote for Robert mercer?
Ted Cruz is doing what the Democrats have done for the last 10 years. It’s about time the Conservative takes advantage of this idea and turn the tables on them
I and others in NH knocked on doors for Ted. For free! So don’t give me that crap we were paid shills.
We do expect something from our candidate. To be a principled Conservative president.
The bolded quote you posted is from Paul Lindsay, a representative for Right to Rise. "Right to Rise is *not* a Cruz PAC. It's a "Jeb!" PAC.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Klan
I was quoting from memory. It was actually 250,000. Which still makes my point quite nicely.
Hiring Jeff Roe is just so principled and just so conservative.
euram - please scream from the rooftops that Trump is not your kind of "principled Conservative." We want all American voters to know that Trump is not your kind of "principled Conservative."
Really, shout it. Loud. Your kind of "principled Conservative" turns off almost everyone.
Works for me.
That’s actually pretty funny. Accusing me of using a non-sequitur by using a non-sequitur. LOL! :-)
So trump can spend his millions just because he’s a magnanimous sonofagun and only wants the best for the country, but if other guys spend their money it’s because they only want something from the government?
Cognitive dissonance much?
You trumpets are so funny
Correction, Trump’s dad did NOT give him the money - it was a loan which was paid back.
___________________________________________________________
Yeahvbecause Trump didn’t inherit any of his Dad’s money when he passed.
And to you too:
So trump can spend his millions just because he’s a magnanimous sonofagun and only wants the best for the country, but if other guys spend their money it’s because they only want something from the government?
Cognitive dissonance much?
You trumpets are so funny!
I’m fully aware that Trump’s path to the nomination appears much more direct than Cruz’s.
Even if Trump wins SC, and he may well do so, it remains to be seen if he will pick up all the congressional districts. I recall that in 2012 Romney didn’t win SC - Gingrich did. Romney got only 2 delegates. Recall President Gingrich?
We need to see all the GOPe candidates drop out - and this ought to be a fact by mid-March.
Then, we’ll see how Cruz and Trump do head-to-head without nearly half the votes being siphoned off by the ‘impossible dreamers’.
I said that of course the other guys don’t want anything from the government. Do you have information to the contrary?
Good Lord Almighty.. Simply pointing out that 100 YEARS AGO BEING A KKK MEMBER WAS LIKE BEING IN A SOCIAL CLUB. Not good, but not pure evil either.
Just wait until someone informs the BLM people, the professors of black grievance, and the entire South that it was just a social club and all that crap the Yankees wrote about y'all was just that. Robert Byrd gets a cooler seat in Hell, too!
Or not.
Now that we have pointed out the folly of blaming someone for their ancestor's actions, perhaps the discussion can get a smidgin more civil around here.
True. And we had such a poll last Tuesday in New Hampshire.
Yes, 250,000 Hoosiers were “runnin’ ‘round lynchin’ and killin” 90 years ago. I think my point has been made. The KKK of yesterday encompassed an enormous demographic at one time, so pointing to a grandfather who signed up for a card is as low as low can go. Cruz fanboys have proved themselves worthy yet again.
But it was okay to point out Robert Byrd had been a KKK member?
Your cognitive disconnect is showing.
I never really made a big deal out of it, because I have no control over the actions of my ancestors any more than anyone else. (One of the main arguments against slavery reparations). I am not responsible for their actions, and I don't think others should be held responsible for the actions of their ancestors.
But with all the Yankee self-righteousness over race shoved at Southerners over the years, 250,000 out of a total population of 3.2 million is a pretty significant group of KKK members, especially when Catholics, Jews, Negroes, Mulattoes, and Indians are barred from membership, and those would be only WASP males, so I'd reckon that'd be close to what, a third, or half of the eligible population segment. That's pretty significant, considering how eeevil the South was supposed to be and all that.
My point is this: Just 'cause 'everyone is doing it' doesn't make it right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.