Happy Veterans Day and 11.11.11... Perry and Super PAC spending lots of money... Ron Paul money bomb... An actual FEC ruling... Jack Abramoff is on Twitter... And ads from the DNC, George Allen, Perry, and Vladimir Putin.
PERRY SPENDING BIG -- Despite Rick Perry's "Oops, I did it again" debate moment the Texas governor still has one thing going for him in his floundering presidential bid. He raised $17 million last quarter and has an aligned super PAC with untold millions to spend on advertising. Perry went up today with a $975,000 ad buy on Fox News; a huge buy for cable television. According to Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times, "Assuming that much of his advertising will run on the top-rated Fox programs of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity - but plenty during the day, too - the move is a Hail Mary pass meant to halt any slide from his embarrassing memory lapse at the debate Wednesday and shore up his poll numbers and fundraising base." [NYT]
At the same time, the pro-Perry super PAC, Make Us Great Again, has purchased $400,000 in ad time in South Carolina.
NYT's @NickConfessore tweets, "Fascinating that Perry's recent ad buys in Iowa and New Hampshire are so seamlessly complemented by Perry SuperPAC buys in South Carolina."
Fundrace tracks the Perry spending binge over the past weeks:
Oct. 25: Rick Perry, $175,000, Iowa
Nov. 1: Make Us Great Again, $180,000, South Carolina
Nov. 2: Rick Perry, $?, New Hampshire (we couldn't find the ad buy amount)
Nov. 2: Make Us Great Again, $202,000, Iowa
Nov. 11: Rick Perry, $975,000, National, Fox News
Nov. 11: Make Us Great Again, ~$400,000, South Carolina
CAMPAIGN VIDEOS
Help us populate our list of campaign videos. Send any notable TV, radio or web ads that you see to Fundraise. We also have a thing for terrible historical campaign ads so please send along your favorites. Send your submissions to paulblumenthal@huffingtonpost.com.
Rick Perry honors vets -- [http://youtu.be/hZtPqWIPv6Q]
The DNC's WhichMitt campaign continues to beat up Romney on flip-flops -- [http://youtu.be/mkSL8n5MSHI]
A veterans tribute from Herman Cain -- [http://youtu.be/_C3WzZawVes]
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell cuts a video for Republican Senate candidate George Allen -- [http://youtu.be/xrLAswf5Yps]
Vladimir Putin's view of democracy -- [http://youtu.be/dK-nnASP7OY]
THE MARK OF THE BEAST -- Yesterday Fundrace reported on the $9 million in contributions received by the Herman Cain campaign. Today, Talking Points Memo's Benjy Sarlin tries to kill all the fun for the Cain camp, "[I]f a widely criticized anti-establishment candidate putting up huge grassroots fundraising figures sounds familiar, it's because it is. And these stories often don't have a happy ending. Take Sharron Angle, whose fringe views and brutal gaffes singlehandedly cost Republicans Harry Reid's Senate seat in 2010, a seat that Democrats had no business holding onto given the toxic political environment that year. While establishment Republicans cringed at Angle's string of mistakes, her red meat rhetoric and perceived lack of respect by the mainstream press galvanized grassroots conservatives donors, who helped her raise over $28 million. ... The same pattern played out that year in Delaware with Christine O'Donnell, whose surprise primary victory against overwhelming general election favorite Mike Castle handed Democrats a crucial Senate seat." As HuffPost Fundrace noted in a tweet, O'Donnell and Angle won in GOP primaries. Their big fundraising hauls did, however, come once they had advanced to the general election. [TPM]
Dem Super PAC head Bill Burton pokes the Romney camp over Twitter, "Mitt Romney's America now has more views on youtube than Mitt Romney's video announcing his candidacy. http://mittromneysamerica.com."
ROVE AD PULLED IN MONTANA -- While everyone focuses on the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS ad against Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren the AP reports that a cable television station in Montana pulled a similar ad running against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). "The ad from Crossroads GPS claims that Tester "voted against preventing Obama's EPA from being able to regulate Montana farmers' dust." The Washington D.C.-based group says Cablevision's Optimum cable service did pull the advertisement, although other networks have not. Tester's campaign argues the grain farmer has long record of opposition to the scuttled EPA proposal. The ad bases its claim on a procedural vote to stop amendments on an unrelated bill, which Republicans later wanted to amend with a ban on farm dust regulations." [AP]
DEMS FUNDRAISE OFF ROVE ADS -- Well, they mostly fundraise off of the Elizabeth Warren ad. It helps to have a high profile political celebrity when you're raising money. HuffPost's Sam Stein writes, "...the longtime consumer advocate has proved an able candidate - climbing in the polls, increasing voter enthusiasm, and, this week, helping the party machinery raise money. ... The irony is that the other Crossroads targets - Tim Kaine, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill and Ben Nelson - are also national figures. But attacks on them don't come close to eliciting the same type of empathetic reaction in voters as attacks on Warren do. So for the purposes of encouraging donations, the DSCC simply played its best hand." [HuffPost]
DEMINT PLAYS IN NEBRASKA -- Conservative senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) dropped $84,283 through his leadership PAC to help Nebraska Republican Senate candidate Don Stenberg. Stenberg, the state's treasurer, is running against state Attorney General Jon Bruning for the GOP nomination to face Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) in next year's general election. In a statement made earlier this week DeMint said, "Don Stenberg is a lifelong conservative with the principles, integrity, and courage needed to stand up to the big spenders in both political parties in Washington." [FEC]
FEC RULES ON CITIZENS UNITED CASE -- Joe Miller loses again! The fringe candidate who knocked off Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in last year's Republican primary, only to go on to lose to Murkowski's write-in candidacy, lost a challenge at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to the activity of 11 Native corporations that funded a super PAC backing Murkowski. The FEC ruling is one of the first rulings on a challenge to super PACs and could have broad implications for government contractors and their ability to spend money in elections. Federal laws prohibit federal contractors from contributing to parties and candidates. Three of the Native corporations had subsidiaries that hold government contracts. "Although they each have subsidiaries that hold federal contracts, those subsidiaries are separate and distinct legal entities from them, and the parent companies have sufficiently demonstrated that they made their contributions (to Alaskans Standing Together) with revenue sources other than the federal-contract-holding subsidiaries." The ruling also found that the group was not a "front group" for Murkowski. [News Tribune]
LESSIG ON CORRUPTION -- Harvard professor and money in politics opponent Larry Lessig sits down for an interview with the Boston Review. He talks about why people are slow react to systemic corruptions, "[W]e're pretty good as a body politic in responding to a slap like 9/11, we're pretty good as a body politic in responding to obvious moral wrong-Rod Blagojevich or Randy "Duke" Cunningham-but it turns out we're not very good at responding to these invidious, systemic wrongs engaged in by people who seem to us to be decent people."
Also, his view on money as speech, "Of course money equals free speech. And we should ask the people who are railing against the idea of money being free speech: "What if congress passed a law, and the Supreme Court allowed it, that said 'Nobody can spend more than a thousand dollars challenging an incumbent.'"? You'd say, wait a minute, that's a pretty effective way to guarantee an incumbent will always win, and I want to use my money as a way to speak freely about my desire to challenge the incumbent. The question isn't whether money is speech. The question is whether we should allow money to so dominate the political system that candidates become more focused on their dependency upon money than upon the People." [Boston Review]
CONSERVATIVE SENATORS BACK NEUMANN IN WISCONSIN -- Politico reports that two conservative senators are fundraising for former congressman Mark Neumann in his primary bid against former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, "Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn will hold a fundraiser for Neumann next month with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who announced his own endorsement of the former congressman Thursday. The Washington fundraiser is set for the evening of Dec. 6 on the rooftop terrace of Davis & Harman on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. Suggested contributions are $2,500 for a host, $1,000 for a PAC and $500 for individuals." Neumann has already been endorsed by the conservative Club for Growth. [Politico]
RON PAUL MONEY BOMBS, AGAIN -- In case anyone wasn't paying attention Ron Paul is hosting a money bomb on Veterans Day. The fundraising goal is $1.1 million, which corresponds to the once-a-century date today (11-11-11). Paul's campaign was also being aided in the money bomb by a super PAC supporting his campaign, "Paul's supporters had planned a money bomb, an event where donors give all on the same day, to coincide with Veterans Day. As of 3:00 pm, the campaign had raised more than $330,000 of its $1.1 million goal. The Paul campaign was also being aided by the super PAC Revolution PAC, which is supporting his candidacy. Revolution PAC is running a money bomb of its own, but it also directed donors to give directly to the Paul campaign through a Facebook invite. A spokesman for Revolution PAC told HuffPost that the super PAC hadn't seen any significant contributions come through, which was attributed to donors mostly focusing on giving to the Paul campaign directly." As of 5:00 PM, the fundraising total was reaching $400,000. [HuffPost]
RECENT POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE FILINGS
BISHOP PAC (Building Infrastructure Harnessing Our Priorities), Southampton, N.Y., Treasurer: Molly Bishop, Connected Lawmaker: Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.)
American Healthcare LLC -- Heritage Hall PAC, Roanoke, Va., Treasurer: Robbie Dalton
RECENT INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES
Senate Conservatives Fund, $84,283 to support Nebraska senate candidate Don Stenberg.
Send tips, hints, submissions, rumors to HuffPost Fundrace at paulblumenthal@huffingtonpost.com.