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."
Just from my childhood neighborhood- though I expect Grant might have said the same.
Spot on, Vin. The splitter strategy is real, but quite clandestine in effecting the unspoken rules of the road.
If you can win yourself, that’s fine. If you can’t, you are held in high favor if you hang around and clear the brush for the other establishment mule who is trailing along on the road, near by.
Obviously, Huckabee has run out of gas, with just enough money left to bang around on someone deemed to be in the wrong lane from the establishment lane. Apparently, Cruz is the mark.
The only thing is Huck seems to actually like TRUMP, or pretends to, in order to keep favor with his conservative pals while he clears it for Rubio, etc..............
....”I REALLY do not like that man”....
Neither do I!
Huckabee is simply looking to keep his face out there so he can continue the wealthier lifestyle he’s accustomed to now since working for Fox. He’s like a Hollywood actor trying to keep his mojo going when it’s all but died.
You said, “I don't know if Cruz has said it, but it's said endlessly here on FR.”
You should find and listen to what Cruz said. His answer about homosexual marriage has always been the same - it is a matter for the individual states to decide based on the 10th Amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Because it is a matter for the states, homosexual marriage is not a top-three priority for him.
Huckabee wants the federal government to decide what marriage is - he does not want the states to have that power. Huckabee’s PAC cut out the rest of Cruz's response (about it is a state matter) after he said, “No”, when asked that question.
Grant and his audience endlessly saluted the Sfaccima, Mario Cuomo, with that phrase. It was a running gag for years.
RIP Bob Grant- Dec. 31, 2013.
“Cruz needs to fight back.”
You do not see him fight back on TV having a food fight like Trump does. He has a multitude of workers in Iowa and he goes there to talk first hand to the voters. He is going through the state in a bus shortly for a week, going to every county in Iowa. He has been going there over and over since he entered the race back in March, talking to individuals and he has pastors of churches there speaking for him, plus office holders doing that.
The establishment is done. Huckster is batting for Trump. Trump has a clear nomination unless Cruz halts him in IA. Huckster is the only weapon Trump has to take out Cruz. Huckster will milk his evangelical credentials to taint Cruz for the benefit of the glorious campaign of Trump.
Trump’s proxy war is obvious.
Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Trump has Huckleberry’s number....and he ain’t dialing it ;-)
Santorum has been a climber his entire adult life.
Couldn’t even decide which party he wanted to work in.
Went all in for Snarlin’ Arlin Spector (R-PA) when Pennsylvania had a chance at a more conservative senator, and spent his entire senate career carrying water with the Establishment, for the Establishment, by the Establishment and playing paddy fingers with the Union he was beholding to back home. A true mule.
He flogged IOWA with his great faith, used his Church, his family and the tragic illness of his daughter as the better part of his platform there, and actually WON the dang state! (Now comes Cruz beating the same drum, but with much more class, because THAT is the IOWA monastery way.)
Huckster is a political evangelist, but this cycle lacks the resources to repeat his performance, due to the competition of Carson and the intrigue he brings, and Cruz who is much better known and has mountains of PAC money and conservative cash to eek out a buy in IOWA.
Huck and Santorum are flim flam artists and they are both out of work most of the time, but for FOXNews propping up Huck for 36 months.
Spot On!
Benedict was an expert in Theology of the Catholic Church, and it is never found to be remotely parallel with the self righteous Pelosi school of thought, she who has already betrayed and denied Church teaching, and thereby excommunicated her own self.
I thought Huckabee made a very good talk show host.
Has Cruz even hit back on defending his father this week? The father took quite a whack for his style of faith and it’s been crickets. Cruz was vociferous (for Cruz) in defense of his daughters, but nothing on the father, I think.
Cruz is more interested in IOWA and needs no extraneous waves created. Four weeks is a long time.
Huck is a former Fox News host, that alone should tell us something about his true convictions.
Rick is my former Senator from PA and a former shill for the Republican Establishment of this state, supporting Arlen Specter in his fight with Pat Toomey in 2004.
20 YEARS AGO IN 1996 RICK SANTORUM WAS CAMPAIGNING FOR THE SHORT LIVED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY OF NONE OTHER THAN ARLEN SPECTER.
Case closed......
Santorum’s platform is different than Cruz's. There is much overlap but they also disagree. I didn't see any personal insults from Santorum just differences of opinion.
The Republican Establishment can’t get at Trump until they take down Cruz.
If Trump and Cruz dominate the early primaries and caucuses bringing in large chunks of delegates, Rubio will be forced out.
Cruz must be destroyed to give Rubio a shot at Trump.
Hey Rita,
Nice to hear from you. I do hope you and your family spent a wonderful Christmas.
you’re right— they do what they’re trained to do. But St.Rick and Rev. Huck parade themselves as the Christian altar boys— the hypocrisy is particularly offensive. Huck may be for Trump,(though I’m certain trump isn’t involved in this charade), but in the end- Huck is for Huck.
Rubio is their only hope- but he’s fatally flawed. They can flim-flam all they want, but they can’t undo his betrayal on amnesty. Paul took the soul out of his campaign when he endorsed McConnell- Rubio did not same when he teamed up with Schumer-— they can’t recover. Not in this climate.
IMO, that’s why Rubio is listless- he feels the anchor around is neck.
It’s Trump or Cruz— As long as they do nothing to estrange the other camp’s supporters, the survivor will defeat the remaining Gop-e.
January should be a ton of fun.
These are the idiots who gave us Owebowma, twice.
Old acid mouth— I think she is a soap opera shut-in with a mouth to match, worse than any cuss word, and bitterrrrr, obviously. But, then clutches the fake pearls, that must by now stick to her chest, when anyone else cusses.
I see- I never listened to him— but I know he was of Italian descent (as am I), so the language doesn’t surprise me.
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