Posted on 06/22/2024 8:21:56 AM PDT by cotton1706
National special interest groups supporting 3rd District Congressman John Curtis for U.S. Senate have spent over $2 million in the last two weeks to oppose one of his rivals, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs.
By law, PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns on expenditures, including advertisements. But following how these groups spend can shed light on the state of the race.
The last minute flood of attack ads comes just days before the June 25 Republican primary election to replace Sen. Mitt Romney.
Utah’s two additional GOP Senate hopefuls, former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson and Moxie Pest Control CEO Jason Walton, appear to not have received any PAC expenditures, for or against their campaigns, in the month leading up to the primary election.
Staggs gets attacked Beginning on June 14, four days after the first and only Senate primary debate, Conservative Values for Utah PAC — which endorsed Curtis even before he announced his Senate campaign — announced its first opposing expenditure of the election cycle, targeted at Staggs.
A day later, Defend American Jobs, a Silicon-Valley-funded PAC, launched a $1.2 million ad buy in opposition to Staggs. The group has spent $15 million to help candidates in federal elections across the country, including roughly $3.5 million to support Curtis, according to FEC filings. But the only money they have spent against a candidate so far is $1.5 million to oppose Staggs.
The remaining $550,000 in PAC spending against Staggs has come from Conservative Values for Utah, which spent more than $725,000 to support Curtis in the weeks leading up to the election out of more than $5.3 million this election cycle. The group was created in October 2023, shortly before releasing an ad to convince Curtis to reconsider swapping a House reelection bid for a Senate one.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Whoever wins will be the next senator. Trump supports Staggs. How does the Buckley rule apply?
Any background on these two? Haven’t heard anything about them.
Glad to see the Buckley rule at least mentioned favorably here. We should strive for more conservative candidates but running unelectable ones for the district that will be voting is unproductive at best and harmful as worst. I would grimace and tolerate Maine’s Susan Collins rather than another Dick “the turban” Durbin in her place there. We CAN and should do better than Murkowski in Alaska, though I understand the mix of Native American populations and the rural nature of the state make for unusual approaches to campaigning there.
Sen. Collins is toast if she chooses to run again. Her support within the party is fading, likely due to her non-support of Trump and a complete lack of substantive positions (except for the all-important FDA reclass of potatoes as grain, which she fought against, tooth and nail).
In her last election, a nobody “D” almost knocked her out. A 1 % vote margin is nothing to crow about.
We should be wondering who is best to replace her when the time comes and prepare them for it.
Last I checked Curtis had an 81% conservative voting record as a congressman. I’d prefer 100%, but is that unreasonable? I just haven’t liked him much over the years as he seems like your typical GOPe Republican. A professional politician.
The Pacs went after Staggs when, at the debate, he disclosed that Curtis made a stock purchase in a local medical company that got a federal contract that very day. That buy smacks of Pelosi-like insider trading. Curtis went ballistic, within a few days the attack ads started. Coordination or Coincidence? You decide.
Sen. Collins is toast if she chooses to run again. Her support within the party is fading, likely due to her non-support of Trump and a complete lack of substantive positions (except for the all-important FDA reclass of potatoes as grain, which she fought against, tooth and nail).
In her last election, a nobody “D” almost knocked her out. A 1 % vote margin is nothing to crow about.
There you go again, making up facts.
Suasan Collins won her last election 51% to 42%. Most pundits described it as a landslide, not a sqeaker.
I sit, corrected. Yes, she got 51% vs. the other 49% to other candidates. Somehow, I doubt she’ll fare as well in the next go-round, especially if the D’s put up a strong candidate, which Gideon wasn’t. She’s likely hoping for more lightweight independents to rob votes from the D side again.
“Any background on these two? Haven’t heard anything about them.”
Staggs is a conservative. Curtis is another Mitt Romney, voted for the J6 committee.
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