Posted on 07/27/2016 12:27:19 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Ted Cruz isn’t just colliding with Donald Trump since the Republican convention. He’s also at odds with some of his own advisers.
At issue: a high-profile primary challenge to Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a Cruz ally and tea party favorite who has long been a thorn in the side of the party establishment. Cruz has rushed to Huelskamp’s aid, providing him with a valuable endorsement just weeks before the Aug. 2 primary. But members of the Texas senator’s political team are working aggressively to defeat the embattled congressman.
Two of the pillars of Cruz’s political operation, the consulting firms Axiom Strategies and Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research, have helped steer a super PAC that is spending heavily to defeat Huelskamp, a member of the conservative, Cruz-friendly House Freedom Caucus — even though Jeff Roe, Cruz’s former campaign manager and Axiom’s top strategist, had previously pledged that he and his firm wouldn’t oppose Huelskamp.
It’s an unusual turn of events. When a prominent politician makes an endorsement, their political apparatus typically follows suit. Roe’s role is particularly surprising. In December, Roe, a Kansas City-based strategist who is Cruz’s closest political adviser, wrote a letter to Huelskamp vowing that neither he nor anyone working at Axiom would join any effort to unseat him in 2016. (Two years earlier, Roe had worked for a super PAC that targeted Huelskamp – an unsuccessful effort that left the congressman steaming.)
Yet, Roe’s firm has had a hand in planning the current anti-Huelskamp campaign, working alongside the super PAC ESAFund, according to recent emails obtained by POLITICO.
On July 5, Axiom employee Sean Brown emailed over a dozen strategists involved with ESAFund. The message updated the group on Huelskamp’s radio and TV advertising plans and compared them to planned advertising by his primary opponent, physician Roger Marshall. Brown noted that Marshall was set to outspend Huelskamp in the upcoming week — and that Huelskamp “has no future spending booked.”
Roe is not on the email chain, but two of his top staffers, Nick Schulte and Travis Smith, are. So are Chris Wilson and Ryan Reynolds, who serve as top pollsters at Wilson Perkins Allen.
A Republican strategist named Dan Flynn replied to the group, saying that the media buy information could be used to win over contributors who might be interested in unseating Huelskamp.
“It is the ripest time for any donor who cares about sending a message to [the House Freedom Caucus] by taking out one of their guys to hear ‘Marshall is outspending Huelskamp this week and the outside effort is currently an open path to maybe knocking him off, BUT (big but) we need about twice the resources currently committed,’” Flynn writes.
A little more than a week after the email exchange, ESAFund collected a $100,000 donation, according to its campaign finance reports, and launched its first TV ad attacking Huelskamp — a 30-second spot that hit the incumbent for voting against the farm bill and for getting kicked off his position on the House Agriculture Committee, a key slot for a member whose district encompasses more than half of Kansas. “It’s time for him to go,” the ad says.
The $100,000 donation came from California investor and GOP megadonor William Oberndorf, according to the group’s campaign finance reports. ESAFund also took in $80,000 from two Kansas companies, American Warrior Inc. and Conestoga Energy Partners, on July 1.
Three sources confirmed Axiom’s role in helping the super PAC, with one describing the firm’s work on the anti-Huelskamp campaign as “extensive.” Roe’s firm did not directly produce the ads, the sources said, but it played a role in offering advice and organizing the offensive.
Cruz endorsed Huelskamp in a Facebook post several weeks ago. "During these uncertain times for our nation, it is more important than ever that conservatives stand together," Cruz wrote. "Economic opportunity, our constitutional liberties, and indeed, the very fate of our nation all depend on having elected leaders who are not beholden to the establishment in Washington, but instead who work for We the People. That is exactly why I’m proud to support Tim Huelskamp for re-election in Kansas’s First Congressional District."
The history between Roe and Huelskamp — a conservative who has frequently collided with his party’s leadership — is filled with tension. Last year, Cruz met with conservative House members, including Huelskamp, to ask for their support in the presidential campaign. But during the meeting, which was first reported on by National Review, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar pressed Cruz to explain why Roe, his top political staffer, had worked to unseat Huelskamp in 2014.
Cruz, according to the account, responded by assuring the members that Roe was focused full-time on his presidential bid and wouldn’t be engaging in any effort to unseat the congressman.
A few weeks later, Roe sent Huelskamp a letter saying that neither he nor Axiom would play any role in the congressman’s 2016 primary. He went on to laud Huelskamp “for his “principled, conservative leadership in Washington and strong work on behalf of Kansans in the Big First District.”
Huelskamp went on to endorse Cruz, who handily won Kansas’s March 5 presidential primary.
During a recent interview, the congressman said he was unaware of Axiom’s participation in his primary.
“Oh no, Jeff Roe said last fall he supported me,” Huelskamp said. “I mean, Ted Cruz gave me his word and so did Jeff Roe.”
“It’s in writing, it was in writing it was in all the publications in December,” he added. “Jeff Roe says I’m doing a great job and we’re still continuing to do that.”
ESAFund was also involved in another summer House primary against a House Freedom Caucus endorsee. The HFC endorsed state Sen. Mike Crane for an open, heavily Republican district in Georgia, but ESAFund released a late TV ad attacking him. Crane lost to GOP opponent Drew Ferguson Tuesday night.
Also helping ESAFund in the Kansas race has been Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research, the prominent Republican polling firm that spearheaded survey and data efforts during Cruz’s presidential bid, producing research that helped the senator microtarget prospective supporters.
The firm is now replicating those efforts against Huelskamp, conducting what one source described as a "Cruz presidential race-style voter analysis." In late June, Wilson Perkins Allen conducted a poll of the district, which dug into voters’ opinions of the two primary candidates and concluding that Huelskamp was vulnerable to a primary challenge. Then, in early July, it conducted a more detailed analysis of the race.
The polling firm has billed around $90,000 to ESAFund for work on the race, per FEC filings. The polling was overseen by Wilson and Reynolds, the two WPA employees on the email chain.
Roe, Wilson Perkins Allen, and a Cruz spokeswoman all declined to comment. ESAFund’s president, Brian Baker, declined to directly comment on the work the Cruz-aligned firms had done.
"ESAFund engages in election contests to support fiscal conservatives around the country, and in that process we consult with a wide range of political strategists to assist in developing and executing our plans,” Baker wrote in an email.
I doubt he can even get a job as a lobbyist. However, he is good friends with an owner of The Chertoff Group
Ping. ;)
Hey Ted; How does it feel to be radioactive?
Everybody is ignoring Traitor Ted now. I heard Tom Cotton asked a direct question on Cruz and he refused to answer. Ted Cruz is a non person now. A big zero.
Next the Canadian Boy Scouts will turn on him. Ted stop digging for your families sake.
Trent Lott’s sleezy DC lobbying firm would take him.
Maybe Goldman Sachs will hire him.....as an in-house court jester.
How ya feelin’, buddy...? ;)
I live in Huelskamp’s district. He was kicked off the Ag committee by Boehner for not kissing enough ass. Where’s Boehner today? I couldn’t care less who Cruz or his advisors endorse. Either Huelskamp or his opponent would be OK with me, but Huelskamp is the incumbent.
Better....just waiting for new lab results next week.
Just ask Obama to roll over. You'll find him. ;)
He’s Ted Cruz, He’ll always be Ted Cruz - Heidi.
Why give him the air time? You lost Ted. You have written yourself off with the party. If you run in 4 years, you wouldn’t get five votes in the entire primary process. You have succeeded in displaying a childish, self-important, standpoint that has left a sour taste in the voter mouths that tells them you should never be considered for the position of president. Crawl back into your hole and stay there until you are out of office. I don’t think you can get re-elected.
red
Even Trent was never this stupid nor “bad”.
“Trent Lott’s sleezy DC lobbying firm would take him.”
Yep, Trent Nott is a pure whore. Caved in 100% of the time to the globalist left while in office. A number of his lawyer pals went to prison for embezzlement of client’s funds.
Sounds about right : )
Thanks much.
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