Tag: rga

To the #DGA : now THIS is a campaign ad.

Seeing as the one that the Democratic Governors Association came up with recently was simultaneously: foul-mouthed; pathetically lame; and very possibly in violation of American copyright law… I’d thought that I’d take pity on the poor, doomed fellows and let them take a look at what a good campaign ad looks like.  From the RGA, a reminder that there’s an election in 14 weeks:

14 Weeks from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

And I invite the DGA to try to beat that. Mostly because it’s remarkably funny to watch them flail around trying to look like actual winners.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

DGA spent 800K… attacking Obama.

Doofuses.

I believe that the topical response to this would be “You’re doing it wrong.”

Major Dem donors who wrote checks to the Democratic Governors Association funded a below-the-radar campaign that attacked Pres. Obama and other Dem all-stars, all in hopes of knocking off a strong GOP challenger.

[snip]

Iowans for Responsible Government is a 527 group founded by Rob Tully, the former state Dem Party chairman. Reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service this morning show the group raised $782K and spent $767K in the second quarter. That money came entirely from the DGA, in 3 contributions in May and June.

…And that money was spent trying – and failing – to get rid of Terry Branstad in the primary by claiming that he was a liberal Obama supporter.  If it had worked, it might have revived Chet Culver’s collapsing campaign; as it stands, it’s over three quarters of a million dollars of Democratic money piled on the ground and set on fire.   Branstad can now point to pretty much any criticism that he’s not conservative enough and plausibly claim that it’s just more Democratic smear-mongering.  He’s already started.  I imagine that Reps. Bruce Bailey and Leonard Boswell aren’t too happy about this, either: both need top-ticket support this cycle if they want to survive. Continue reading DGA spent 800K… attacking Obama.

RGA Rising.

If you’re wondering just how seriously you need to take this article about the Great Gubernatorial War of 2010:

Nick Ayers, the executive director of the Republican Governors Association, offers this preview of what’s at stake in the 37 gubernatorial races in November. Between now and Election Day, the association and its Democratic counterpart will be engaged in “a $100 million-plus chess match for control of the foundation of American politics for the next 10 years.”

…the answer is: very seriously. Besides redistricting, the states are where both parties typically recruit their Presidential candidates*; the bigger the pool to draw from, the better.  The House and Senate races are important, sure – and we’re now in a position where a Republican gain of 38 in the former will be spun as a failure, and a gain of 8 in the latter will be defined as mediocre – but in terms of long-term advantage the governorships are key.  The Democrats are worried, particularly in light of the massive fundraising disparity that’s going on with the RGA & DGA right now.

As to whether the Democrats are right to be worried, let me put it this way: of the Democratic governors mentioned by name in this story (via Hot Air), precisely one (Beebe) up for re-election has good odds of still being a Governor next year.   Of the rest: Manchin’s bailing out in favor of a Senate bid, Ritter didn’t dare run for re-election, Quinn is on-track to lose in November, Patrick is counting on a third-party bid to survive (no, seriously, that’s his entire re-election strategy), Culver has actual vultures escorting him everywhere he goes, and Gregoire is thanking her lucky stars that she was able to run in 2008 and not 2010.

Moe Lane

*With the 2008 election becoming an increasingly powerful counter-example of why the parties should recruit their Presidential candidates from the Executive branch.

Crossposted to RedState.

Governor-elects Christie, McDonnell fib at the RGA shindig.

They were asked why they didn’t bring in former Governor Sarah Palin to campaign for them in Virginia & New Jersey, and both of them made what are entirely excusable fibs about scheduling conflicts and the need to stay focused on state-specific problems.  Come, I will hide nothing from you: they didn’t bring her in because both of them concluded that her reputation had taken a hit and had not recovered enough.

Yet.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.