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."
Huckleberry is more of the “Evangelism Wing of the RINO Party” type man. He is the Evangelical the GOPe likes to use as a stalking horse.
The establishment wants to take down both Cruz and Trump but they wanna take down Cruz ASAP to make way for their Establishment RINO choice to battle it out with Trump over the spring / summer...
They know they can’t bring down Trump any time soon so they want to cement their man in 2nd place to either take down Trump later or to the camel nose in the tent VP choice later for trump.
Huckabee and Santorum are the frauds. I have lost all respect for them.
“The infighting among the GOP candidates under Trump is WUNDERBAR!
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.”
Excellent political analysis and dead on. GO TRUMP!
H didn't. It was his execrable pile of retard supporters on FR, I could support him if Lloyd Blankfein gives him permission to leave the 2nd amendment alone.
“ “Myra Belle “Sally†Miller — the 195â€8 Miss Arkansâ€as who said in 19â€92 that she had â€had an affair with Clinâ€ton in 1983. â€She claimed†that she†had been â€warned noâ€t to go public by a Demoâ€cratic†Party official: “They knew that I went joggâ€ing by myself and he couldn’t guarâ€antee what would happen to my prâ€etty little legs.†“
Into this:
"Myra Belle "Sally" Miller -- the 1958 Miss Arkansas who said in 1992 that she had had an affair with Clinton in 1983. She claimed that she had been warned not to go public by a Democratic Party official: "They knew that I went jogging by myself and he couldn't guarantee what would happen to my pretty little legs."
Real easy here:
You got this be blind then.
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.
Ok, I'll bite. First of all Reagan was a Republican governor of California for two terms before he ever run for president. He didn't just register as a Republican and then run for president.
About that divorce..... his wife cheated on him with another guy, even so he was ready the take her back but she wasn't ready to continue the marriage. Reagan was entirely blameless and honorable.
Pretty much. Rubio is 20 points behind Cruz. Huckabee and Santorum together add up to 3-points. The sum of their poll numbers won't do s**t for Rubio in catching up to Cruz.
So the guy who invited Moochelle Maobama on his TV show is calling Cruz a fraud. O....K...!
Huckabees little public relations stunt at the Same sex Marriage County Clerk event needs to be vetted to the media by Cruz. That will be a nice little embarrassing bit for the Huckster.
Its naive to believe PAC donors would fork over for some personal vendetta.
I think it will backfire, not that Cruz isn’t off limits for attack ads, but when you run an attack ad at least be honest about the facts.
Yep
My sense of the situation is that ‘trolling’ is being used to incite a fight between those who support Cruz and those who support Trump. I could be wrong, but that’s my sense.
Trump, whoever he is or whatever he is, has been a one man wrecking machine leaving the Republican Establishment bleeding on the ground.
Ted Cruz would not be where he is today without the wrecking ball taking em down from Jeb to Carly Fiorina to Ben Carson, sucking the air out of Walker and Jindal, cutting off the GOPe candidates and their spoiler conservative splitter candidates from any viability.
I don’t think Donald Trump’s work is done, so I leave him alone to do his work. Trump may destroy the Republican Party and level it to the ground in the end.
If that happens, I’ll have to accept the outcome. It may mean Democrats holding power in many places.
The GOP as exemplified by Ryan and McConnell are fully committed to bankrupting this nation setting us on course for a national debt over 20 trillion dollars.
Votes for existing Republican politicians with a few exceptions like Cruz are votes to bankrupt the United States of America.
I wasn’t referring to that at all, and neither was the poster who I was responding to.
What he said was “When did Cruz say he was the purest conservative running? “
My response was ‘It’s stated endlessly here on FR’.
Which it is.
Sorry, thought you were referring to the marriage thing. I do not recall Cruz himself ever saying he was the “purest conservative running” - but I believe he is based on his history and no doubt others on the forum think that and have likely written that.
The GOP is a circular firing squad.
If senator Cruz was NOT pushing the cheap labor express relentlessly, he would be my candidate.
But sorry, I belong to the vast hard working American middle class, and no way I can support any candidate pushing cheap foreign labor on Americans.
Do not take my word on it, listen to the senator himself...
Cruz pushing path to legal status for illegals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CwVrfydjOI&feature=youtu.be
Cruz pushing for 500% expansion of H1-B visa cheap foreign workers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHlGlNwsQb0
Cruz pushing TPP:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/11/ted-cruz-channels-paul-ryan-a-lot-of-misinformation-on-obamatrade-that-you-can-get-on-the-internet/
Trolling = posting Lies and subterfuge.
Example: Trump donated to democrats.
That is classic trolling, because Trump was not a political hack or republican party official. He was a very busy and very successful businessman. His businesses operated in heavily democrat states. Trump is not a fool. He did everything legally allowed to keep the democrats in power to throw monkey wrenches in his business ventures.
When Trump supporters like me post anything about Cruz, it is 100% accurate. Actually I post only speeches by Ted Cruz himself. Like these 3 speeches....I will let Ted do the talking himself.
Cruz pushing path to legal status for illegals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CwVrfydjOI&feature=youtu.be
Cruz pushing for 500% expansion of H1-B visa cheap foreign workers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHlGlNwsQb0
Cruz pushing TPP:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/11/ted-cruz-channels-paul-ryan-a-lot-of-misinformation-on-obamatrade-that-you-can-get-on-the-internet/
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