Free Republic

Conservative super PAC Keep the Promise I has made a $1 million radio ad buy to support presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The spots, which will run through the end of 2015, are part of a concerted effort by Cruz backers to double down on radio to deliver their message heading into the early stages of primary season. According to Kantar Media/CMAG Competitive data, Cruz and his PACs allocated virtually all of their broadcast dollars to radio in October and November and have committed to do the same in December. The focus of the 15-second nationwide spots tout how the Texas...

John Boehner's House speaker seat is barely cold — but that's not stopping Sen. Ted Cruz's supporters from airing a radio ad ripping the former GOP presiding officer on Capitol Hill. In the ad, paid for by a super PAC backing the Texas Republican who is running for president, a female narrator refers to Boehner once taking a mildly profane swipe at Cruz, The Washington Post reports. The narrator, who identifies herself as a mother of two, complains Boehner "attacked Ted Cruz, referring to him as a pain in the you know what because of his bold actions fighting to...

WASHINGTON–A super PAC supporting Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign released seven radio ads praising the senator’s record on gun ownership, religious expression and fighting Republican leadership in Congress. Produced by super PAC Keep the Promise I, the ads are part of a previously announced $1 million campaign, and will run through the end of 2015 on Christian and conservative radio networks and talk shows. Each ad features one narrator–two mothers, a veteran or a hunter–explaining why he or she supports and trusts Cruz....The ads echo Cruz’s own pitch for the presidency. He often claims he’s the only presidential candidate in...

On Friday, the Washington Post ran a story that can only show the credulousness of their political reporters… or the extent to which they are willing to pass on propaganda as news. If you recall, on Thursday, US News published a leaked donor presentation that showed the Bush campaign was in deep trouble in Iowa. This is the kind of thing that happens in floundering campaigns. Bad information starts leaking from every pore and seam. The Washington Post came to a different conclusion. They determined that the Bush campaign was using clever campaign jiu-jitsu: The “leak,” like so many “leaks,”...

I am sorry to have to do this, but as a representative of the mainstream media, I hereby declare war on GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. In the media's defense, Cruz started it. Literally. -- snip -- Strap on your boots, Teddy boy. We're comin' for ya now. And we've got the weapon you fear the most: the truth.

This particular campaign story arc has been rolling out over the course of the week but it’s looking like a smart move on the part of The Donald. Part of his appeal to those preferring an outsider candidate is the fact that Trump will largely self-fund his campaign (with the more recent addition of accepting private, small donor dollars) leaving him free of the influence of the Big Dollar. But some Super PACs popped up which have been supporting the real estate mogul, some with ties to his business empire. This has drawn a lot of criticism in the...

RUSH: Donald Trump has told people to stop giving money to his PACs and he's asked the PACs to give the money back. Donald Trump doesn't want anybody to think that money is influencing anything he's doing, other people's money. Now, a PAC, a candidate cannot coordinate with a PAC. The PACs raise money and do with it what they want, supposedly without any contact with the candidate. It's expressly forbidden by law. Now, we know that laws have never stopped people. There have been allegations over the years that there's been coordination. But Trump is actually saying, "Give the...

Billionaire investor and longtime Donald Trump supporter Carl Icahn announced he is launching a $150 million super PAC to revise corporate tax law. Trump has indicated Icahn may be his choice for Treasury secretary should he win his bid for president. Icahn, in a letter to House and Senate leaders, said he wants Congress to pass legislation that will stop U.S. companies from moving profits overseas for lower tax rates, formally known as corporate tax inversions. He said lawmakers must be "accountable for the current gridlock in Congress that prevents important legislation from being passed." "In the last few years...

A top supporter of Gov. Jeb Bush is saying the GOP’s 2016 frontrunner, Donald Trump, is “dead politically” and won’t be president of the United States, despite being at the top of the polls. Trump is “a false zombie front-runner. He’s dead politically, he’ll never be president of the United States, ever,” Mike Murphy said in an interview with Bloomberg Politics. “By definition I don’t think you can be a front-runner if you’re totally un-electable. I think there’s there an a-priori logic problem in that,” said Murphy, who is the chief strategist at Bush’s “Right To Rise” Super-PAC that has...

None of this strikes me as true. How has Trump’s entry changed the race?It created a false zombie front-runner. He’s dead politically, he’ll never be president of the United States, ever. By definition I don’t think you can be a front-runner if you’re totally un-electable. I think there’s there an a-priori logic problem in that.Has he been dead since he got in?I think so, yeah. So there’s no meaningful outcome to it. But the question is what kind of catalyst is it? It’s a huge amount of noise and so we’re trying to find the signal in all this. You’ve...

Former President George W. Bush reportedly ripped into Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a weekend gathering of donors to his brother's presidential campaign, according to a published report Monday. Politico reported that Bush said of Cruz, "I just don't like the guy," at the event, which was held Sunday night in Denver. According to the report, which cited at least six donors who were at the event, Bush said he did not like Cruz's de facto alliance with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has notably spared Cruz from the criticism he has ladled onto other members of the 15-candidate Republican...

As he brags that he is turning down millions of dollars for his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has leveled a steady line of attack against his rivals: that they are too cozy with big-money super PACs and may be breaking the law by coordinating with them. “You know the nice part about me?” he told reporters in Iowa in August. “I don’t need anybody’s money.” What Trump doesn’t say is that he and his top campaign aide have connections to a super PAC collecting large checks to support his candidacy — a group viewed by people familiar with his campaign...

GOP 2016 contenders Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Carly Fiorina, and former Sen. Rick Santorum will headline a special event that will focus on federalism and federal overreach on Saturday, October 3 at Southern New Hampshire University. “Practical Federalism,” hosted by the conservative American Principles Project (APP), will illuminate the Framers’ view that elected state officials – governors and state legislatures – have the duty to push back against federal overreach and intrusion on the states. “During this forum, we will raise the consciousness of the state’s legislators, activists, and Republican base, so that they demand that the potential 2016 presidential...

WASHINGTON–Keep the Promise I, a super PAC supporting Sen. Ted Cruz’ presidential run, announced today a $1 million radio ad campaign on a slew of Christian and conservative radio shows and networks.The ad is a 60-second summary of Cruz’s presidential pitch: The son of a Cuban refugee who’s fought for conservative principles in the Supreme Court and U.S. Senate is the one person we can trust in the White House.“His father was jailed fighting for the freedom of his fellow countrymen and fled Cuba to live the American Dream. Like his father, Ted Cruz fights for what matters: liberty, freedom,...

Ted Cruz' creative presidential campaign is being matched by an equally creative super PAC, as revealed by the advertising strategy being executed by one of four outside independent groups supporting the Texas senator's presidential bid. On Friday, Keep the Promise I announced a $1 million national radio advertising buy to run through the end of the year. The group's news was hardly the first among super PACs backing a Republican for president in 2016. But where the other third party groups have spent money on traditional broadcast and cable television advertising, Keep the Promise I is focusing on radio —...

Despite his prior pledge to self-fund his campaign, the billionaire businessman now appears to be embracing big donors. ...even as Trump publicly scorned other candidates’ use of super PACs, he tacitly gave approval to the Make America Great Again PAC by attending a fundraiser the group held [in July]. Trump spoke for between 10 and 15 minutes at the mid-July fundraiser, where about 200 people packed into a private residence in Manhattan. “There are so many people wanting to contribute and I am so grateful for their support. I appreciate the moral investment in my vision to Make America Great...

(CNN)—The super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's bid for president will spend $10 million on its first major TV ad campaign starting next month. A spokesman for Right to Rise PAC confirmed that the group will start running ads in the crucial early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire on September 15, with ads starting in South Carolina the week after. The commercials, first reported by The Associated Press, will focus on promoting the former Florida governor's record and will run through December.

The Ricketts family sweepstakes are over and Scott Walker has won handily, according to Republicans familiar with Unintimidated, the super PAC supporting the Wisconsin governor and presidential candidate. Federal election filings will soon show that billionaire investor Joe Ricketts and his wife, Marlene, have together given $5 million to the Walker-allied group — a significant haul from one of the GOP’s biggest donors. Their son, Todd, is another Walker donor and co-chairman of his national fundraising efforts. In recent months he has hosted events for the governor and traveled with him on the campaign trail. Federal filings will also show...

Jeb Bush has officially become the $100 million man. The Republican front-runner’s Right to Rise super PAC, which will take on an unprecedented role in tandem with his presidential campaign, announced on Thursday that it has banked $103 million in the past six months, exceeding its own ambitious goal of $100 million. The group has $98 million in cash and is unlikely to truly begin spending its massive war chest until the end of the year, according to multiple sources. The organization made the announcement on Twitter less than an hour after Bush’s campaign, which cannot coordinate with the super...

Jeb Bush is under growing pressure to acknowledge what to some voters and a number of campaign finance lawyers seems obvious: He is running for president. The lawyers say Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor, is stretching the limits of election law by crisscrossing the country, hiring a political team and raising tens of millions of dollars at fund-raisers, all without declaring — except once, by mistake — that he is a candidate. Some election experts say Mr. Bush passed the legal threshold to be considered a candidate months ago, even if he has not formally acknowledged it. Federal law...