GOP Leader Mitch McConnell Wants To Effectively Destroy The Senate Conservatives Fund For the past month a recurring theme at the weekly Senate Republican Conference lunches has been the activities of groups such as the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), Club for Growth, Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and RedState. Senate GOP Leaders Mitch McConnell (KY) and John Cornyn (TX) believe these groups are destructive and unfair, and many GOP Senators have now publicly criticized them. This began when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was asked to tell the groups to suspend ads attacking GOP lawmakers. This week Cruz, Rand Paul (KY) and Mike Lee (UT) agreed to stop SCF fundraising activities, and they promised not to endorse the opponent of any GOP incumbent. McConnell and Cornyn both have 100% American Conservative Union ratings, and they are furious with ads claiming they support Obamacare. Every Republican in the House and Senate opposes Obamacare, and McConnell and Cornyn disagreed with the Cruz strategy to shut down the government. Not one Democrat supports defunding Obamacare, and McConnell says it would have made no difference if a defund resolution passed the Senate because it would immediately be vetoed by the President. McConnell told colleagues he is tired of playing defense, and now in an unprecedented action, the GOP leaders have gone on the offense. Their first victory was the pledge from Senators Cruz, Paul and Lee. They also encouraged groups trying to stop a Tea Party candidate in Tuesdays special election primary in Alabama. The recent escalation was explained in todays New York Times: In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has informed a prominent GOP advertising firm it would not receive any contracts with the committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans. Even more striking, a senior NRSC official called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), and other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative. “We’re not going to do business with people who profit off of attacking Republicans, said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the committee. Purity for profit is a disease that threatens the Republican Party. The committee has conveyed the same message, privately, to 2014 Senate candidates, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee (the senatorial committee’s House counterpart), the Republican Governors Association and Mike DuHaime, the chief strategist for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, for whom Jamestown also does work. Jamestown declined to respond to the attempt to curtail their business, deferring to the Senate Conservatives Fund, which criticized McConnell. . . The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s power play is part of a larger effort among establishment Republicans after the recent government shutdown to seize control of the party from insurgent forces who want to push Republicans toward a more hard-line posture and aggressive brand of conservatism. The attempt to effectively blacklist the consulting firm illustrates the extent of the tensions between the establishment and the hard-liners. McConnell’s allies in Washington’s lobbying community have been furious for weeks that Jamestown, which also does work for groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition, was on retainer with the Senate Conservatives Fund. One Republican lobbyist even printed out the records of a TV station detailing the run times of every ad devised by Jamestown for the conservative group’s campaign against McConnell and gave it to a reporter. These are not the kind of people we would ever do business with, said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In the wake of the shutdown, McConnell and his top aides are also becoming more outspoken about wanting to effectively destroy the Senate Conservatives Fund. The senator has told donors he and other party leaders will take a much more aggressive approach in confronting such conservative groups. And on Friday, one of Mr. McConnell’s closest aides offered a vivid metaphor about the leader’s determination. S.C.F. has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into, said Josh Holmes, McConnell’s chief of staff, now detailed to the NRSC through the election. The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door. PHOTO: Vice President Lisa Morrison, CEO Larry Weitzner, and Executive Vice President John Konkus of Jamestown Associates.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 10:02:26 +0000
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