Posted on 12/30/2015 5:33:29 PM PST by VinL
Allies of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are plotting a multi-pronged offensive against Ted Cruz as the Republican presidential race enters the final month before the Iowa caucuses.
A pro-Huckabee super PAC is among the central players in the anti-Cruz push, which is already taking hold in mailboxes and on the radio across the Hawkeye State. The group, known as Pursuing America's Greatness, is not ruling out TV advertising as it seeks to undercut Cruz's claim of being the purest conservative in the GOP field.
"All options are on the table from our perspective," said Blain Rethmeier, a spokesman for the group. "We believe Sen. Cruz is a fraud, and we hope to make that apparent to the conservatives taking part in the process in Iowa."
Rethmeier described the anti-Cruz campaign as "easily a six-figure effort" up through the Feb. 1 caucuses, with an increased level of activity in the near future. The super PAC plans to zero in on three areas where it believes Cruz is most vulnerable: immigration, faith and ethanol.
Word of the anti-Cruz campaign comes as he prepares to blitz the state for a six-day, 36-county bus tour starting Monday. It also comes as polls show Cruz emerging as a front-runner for the caucuses, with Huckabee struggling to gain traction in a state whose nominating contest he won eight years ago.
"As Sen. Cruz blankets the state during his bus tour ... expect us to hold his feet to the fire on his statements and any mischaracterization he makes," Rethmeier said.
A Cruz spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the super PAC’s offensive. However, in an interview Monday, Cruz's Iowa state director, Bryan English, said he is confident that caucus-goers would be able to distinguish fact from fiction as the attacks on the Texas senator increase.
"I think Iowans have a unique ability to cut through the noise and ignore things that cross the line from a legitimacy perspective,†English said. "I just think Iowans have an ability to take those attack ads with a grain of salt and they go and look at their records."
The group got its start on Cruz last week, when it pounced on a report that Cruz told an attendee at a fundraiser that fighting gay marriage is not a "top-three priority" for him. A radio ad released by the super PAC warned Iowans that the episode shows there are "two Teds" running for president.
"Listen to Cruz raise money in New York City from liberals who don’t share our conservative Iowa values," a narrator says in the 30-second spot. "Remember, the next time Cruz tells you he shares your values, there are two Teds."
On immigration, the super PAC is echoing an argument made by another Cruz rival, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose campaign has aggressively worked for weeks to show the Texas senator is not as tough on border issues as he says he is. A mailer the pro-Huckabee group distributed this month claims Cruz "supports amnesty" for people in the country illegally, an accusation Cruz vehemently denies.
"Do you really know where Sen. Ted Cruz stands on illegal immigration?" the mailer asks. "Think Ted Cruz is going to get tough on illegal immigration? Think again!"
Regarding social issues, the super PAC plans to draw what Rethmeier described as "a distinction between what a social conservative is and what a 10th Amendment conservative is." That contrast is apparent in how the two candidates approach marriage, according to Huckabee allies: Cruz wants to leave it up to the states, while Huckabee's opposition to gay marriage is more categorical.
The head of the pro-Huckabee super PAC, Nick Ryan, is also involved in America's Renewable Future, a pro-ethanol nonprofit group that has been hammering Cruz for weeks over his opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which sets a minimum amount of biofuels that must be blended into the gasoline supply. America's Renewable Future signaled Wednesday that it does not plan to let up on Cruz in the final month before the caucuses, promising that its "efforts will resume after the holidays."
Another outfit aligned with Ryan, the Iowa Progress Project, is already running commercials against Cruz in the Hawkeye State. In recent TV and radio spots, the nonprofit group takes on both the Texas senator and one of his most prominent supporters in Iowa, U.S. Rep. Steve King, suggesting King turned his back on Iowans by endorsing an anti-RFS candidate.
While Huckabee cannot coordinate with the super PAC supporting him under law, he has made clear he believes the group is raising legitimate questions about Cruz, at least on the the topic of marriage.
"Conservatives are being asked to ‘coalesce’ around yet another corporately-funded candidate that says something very different at a big donor fundraiser in Manhattan than at a church in Marshalltown," Huckabee said in a statement shortly after Politico released the audio of Cruz's fundraiser remarks. "Shouldn’t a candidate be expected to have authenticity and consistency, instead of having to look at a map to decide what to believe and what to say?"
In the recording published by Politico, Cruz responded no when asked if fighting gay marriage was one of his top three priorities, but went on to put in the context of a broader goal: "defending the Constitution." The super PAC ads omit the latter part of Cruz's reply.
In an interview Sunday on Fox News, Huckabee defended the spot, saying there is "nothing selective, there's nothing deceptive" about it. Huckabee went on to repeat the super PAC's assertion that the episode has revealed Cruz as two-faced, saying candidates should not "take a different or slightly nuanced position because it would help you or hurt you with Manhattan fundraisers."
Huck wants to ban the word “rino”.
Ok, love fest over. I look forward to doing battle with you in the near future LOL !!!
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Huck is playing to have Trump pay off his campaign debt.
Huck is Slick with an R in place of the D
He does not mean it is not his top priority in the way people are taking it. He means the Constitution comes first on every single issue. By his definition, that means states decide. By historical definition, the fundamentals can be federal, as with polygamy. States cannot choose to overturn long held social order, or so it is suppose to go. In that sense even Cruz is not an originalist. I’ll take it as a states rights issue, even though that leaves it ultimately federal because of the full faith and credit clause. At least it would take a lot longer.
Sadly we are no longer just slouching toward Gomorrah, we ARE Gomorrah. That will take another revolution to change, I’m afraid. The liberals get their wins and then five minutes later they ban or at least severely punish all dissension. Never mind that the dissent was the standard ever since the beginning of time. Regardless of where we are, I will not support someone who is not at least appalled by it as well as attempting to turn it around.
There are other possibilities; for instance, he might just be inherently spiteful, Like Sadam setting the Kuwait oil rigs aflame.
He certainly isn’t doing the nation a service. If he believed Cruz to be a fraud, he’s had ample time to make that case. And, as you might know, he selectively edited Cruz’s tape to create a false impression of Cruz’s position. How is that a public service?
No, he’s proceeding maliciously-— WHen Bush and the GOPe went after Trump, it had no effect because the voters wouldn’t credit anything that came out of GOPe mouths.
Similarly, Huck and Rick have zero credibility- folks know what they’re doing— they might as well take sadam’s choice and burn the advertising money.
Huckabee taking votes from Cruz in Iowa, doesn't help Rubio pass Trump. It helps Trump pass Cruz.
Maybe they just don’t like Cruz.
It should be encouraged!
In the Iowa caucuses, the votes for the too-many underlings will be so fractured and mal-distributed that almost NONE will get anything other than a tepid total compared to Trump's.
Donald's voters are motivated and hot to trot...and will march en masse with determination to their various caucuses to vote for their standard-bearer. No agonizing and mental nit-picking over who to vote for with these stalwarts. They are focused.
These are the young, the old, the small business owners, the clerks, the blue collar guys, the ethnics who need jobs, the factory workers, the housewives, the military, the vets and the law enforcement pinatas....plus all the little folks behind the woodwork that no one pays attention to and who never get polled...and who ain't gonna take it any more.
These folks will comprise a solid bloc of citizens casting Trump votes in each Iowa caucus building that will overwhelm the multi-divided totals of the shell-shocked candidates below.
Iowa will be a tsunami of epic proportions for the Donald despite the frantic and last-ditch efforts of the media and the poll-manipulators to torpedo his campaign.
Leni
Cruz can wear it like a badge of honor.
Or is it two badges.
One Ricky badge and one Huckster badge.
That’s fine. I was just speculating that maybe that’s their only reason for what they are doing.
Huckster commuted the sentences of convicted murderers.
He’s calling someone a fraud!!!
Both Huck and Sant are has been pos’s now working for the GOPe...May they both rot in their on stench...
Huckabee makes me ashamed he claims the name od Christ and
Second a Baptist.
He is a cannibal.
THAT is what I think too!!
One pundit opined that all these candidates are very good for TRUMP, until he crosses the 50% mark, and then it will be time for them to GTH away.
I am so ready to vote and get on with the General, and it’s not yet even January!!!
Rubio spent a ton trying to convince folks that Cruz wasn’t Cruz-— Rubio lost ground. The same will happen with this effort, except Rick and Huck have no ground to lose.
I can’t wait to watch January unfold. Thinking of Cruz, one has to know that he’s been planning for this moment for years. He ran simulations in his head over and over, “it’s Jan. 1, 2016, primary on Feb 1, 2016, now here’s what I do...”
Can’t imagine that there’s anything he hasn’t considered and prepared for— 31 days, he has them planned for years, including how to deal with sneak attacks from Huck and ethanol.
Be fun to watch.
Huckabee is with the GOP... same as Jeb and Rubio.......
Further his stances on social programs could easily appear “Progressive”.....Democrats would like them....
Likely correct.
I will drink to that LOL!
You may want to direct that to Cruz supporters only. I do not see many Trump supporters trolling Cruz threads, and posting untruths. On the other hand Cruz supporters troll every Trump thread posting stuff from many years ago when Trump was never a party hack, just a very busy businessman.
I constantly see ^Trump donated to democrats^, Trump had 2 divorces etc. SO unless these same people disparage Reagan for actually being a registered democrat and union activist once and also was divorced, it smacks of hypocrisy.
BTTT! Great post.
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