Posted on 08/11/2015 4:50:19 PM PDT by VinL
THE BIG IDEA: Ted Cruz’s operatives are quietly reaching out to Rand Paul’s early supporters and endorsers, making the case that the Texas senator is their best bet if they want a Republican nominee who is friendly to libertarians.
Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan GOP chair who is working for Cruz, recently traveled to New Hampshire to meet with Paul backers and make that case, my colleague David Weigel scoops for the 202. The key to his pitch: Paul is floundering and Cruz is viable. Other sources tell me that Cruz is poised to roll out a few endorsements from 2012 supporters of Ron Paul who have held off on signing with Rand.
The Texas senator has a robust network of super PACs, with the hefty backing of hedge-fund magnate Robert Mercer, while the head of Rand’s main super PAC got indicted by the feds last week on 2012-related campaign finance charges. Cruz allies are also circulating recent news reports that highlight organizational problems within Paul’s orbit.
The Kentucky senator, who is simultaneously running for reelection and president in 2016, is struggling to expand his coalition while consolidating the libertarian purists. After spending 2013 as a media darling, he’s drifted out of the conversation and slipped in the polls. A survey released yesterday by Public Policy Polling found Paul getting just 3 percent among likely Iowa caucusgoers, down from 10 percent in April. (Cruz is in sixth place at 9 percent.)
Cruz himself freely acknowledges that he wants to dip into the libertarian bracket. The Texan is on a bus tour this week across the South, with a focus on states with early March primaries. Katie Zezima, on the Cruz beat for The Post, relayed between stops in Tennessee that Cruz is invoking the Fourth Amendment, a Paul favorite, (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ridiculous title.
As if all the candidates are *not* competeing for votes, money, and volunteers.
Sheesh
This ha been going on since the beginning. I wonder if Rand will be the next person that can’t pay his campaign staff? I don’t worry about Linda, doubt there are any.
Poach? So the author thinks Paul owns his voters? Try the other way around. Every candidate has a right to win over every voter. Every voter has the right to weigh his options.
Voters don’t belong to a candidate and cannot therefore be poached. If Senator Cruz wins over some libertarian supporters, good on him.
LOL. It looks like we reached the same conclusion, except you beat me to the post. Winning votes is not poaching.
Ted Cruz is my favorite Libertarian.
LOL! Are you gonna eat that? No??
Starting to cast a shadow on Cruz?
Watch out, people, here comes Trump....he doesn’t like anyone saying anything bad about Cruz and Cruz sticks up for Trump...
Oh boy...this is going to in-ter-esting...
Exactly.
No wonder Paul is so snarky. LOL
Indeed.
I stand with Ted
NOW is the time for all good conservatives to come to the aid of THE candidate
Paul is my #1 guy, but Cruz is probably right. Rand is too much of a libertarian to appeal to most Republicans... and quite frankly if we end up with Ted Cruz, I’d be more than happy.
I once liked him. I’m curious— how much do you think the McConnell endorsement hurt him, if at all?
Is it wrong to poach from someone who is toast?
It’s OK by me.
I don’t think it makes much difference either way, really. I don’t know how beneficial (or detrimental) endorsements are, period, to tell you the truth.
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