‘Keep your damn money’: Dems reject corporate PACs as they rally around anti-corruption message

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Democrats have refined a plank of their anti-corruption messaging this cycle: We won’t accept corporate PAC money. This message is best summed up in a new ad from Democrat Max Rose, who is running an underdog campaign to unseat GOP Rep. Dan Donovan in New York’s 11th District.


“Politicians like Dan Donovan sell out to corporate PACs, and we can’t get anything done,” Rose says in the ad. “I’ve got a message for the lobbyists and the corporate kingmakers: keep your damn money, because it’s not you I’m working for.”

This is a message that Democrats have picked up on across the country. End Citizens United, a Democratic outside group pushing for campaign finance reform, tallied 111 Democratic candidates who have rejected corporate PACs who have advanced to the general election. The group said that about 60 percent of DCCC “Red to Blue” candidates have also pledged to reject corporate PACs. From Ohio’s 1st District (“I’m Aftab Pureval, I won’t take their corporate PAC money”) to the Texas Senate race (“No PACs, just people,” from Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke) and just about everywhere in between, Democrats have used their rejection of corporate PAC money as part of positive messaging to say they’ll work for their voters.

The flip side: In addition to using it to sell themselves, Democrats are using corporate PACs as a battering ram against Republicans, using the money to question the motives of incumbent Republicans as they hammer the GOP health care and tax plans.

An ad in New York’s 19th District from Democrat Antonio Delgado exemplifies this, trying to link Republican Rep. John Faso’s campaign financing to his health care vote. “Congressman Faso, you’ve taken over $800,000 from corporate donors and voted to take away health care,” a Delgado supporter says in the ad. “Can you tell my daughter that all that money was worth it?”

“It really helps caffeinate other issues,” Anne Feldman, the press secretary for ECU, said in an interview with Score. “From rising gas prices to health care to lowering prescription drug costs … [It] makes those economic messages stronger.” Polling from ECU found that two out of three voters believe the amount of money in politics affects “kitchen table” issues.

A FUNDRAISING WAVE — The DCCC has surpassed its 2016 digital fundraising total, with about 10 weeks to go in the 2018 campaign. Campaign Pro chief Scott Bland: “The DCCC passed $75.27 million raised with months still to go in the 2018 midterms. The committee passed the milestone early Tuesday morning ... a DCCC aide said. It is possible the DCCC could pass $100 million raised online by Nov. 6, since online giving rates grow so rapidly in the final weeks of an election. Overall, the DCCC's online take accounted for 37 percent of its total fundraising ($191 million) from January 2017 through July 2018. …

“Some of the seeds for the online record were planted just after the 2016 election, when House Democrats hoped to capture the majority in an anti-Trump wave but instead netted six seats as President Donald Trump was elected. Starting the week after the disappointing result, the DCCC began a digital ad campaign to build its email list, ultimately spending nearly $2.6 million on the effort by the end of March 2017, according to the DCCC aide.”

Good Thursday morning. As always email me at [email protected] or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @ec_schneider, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @MaggieSeverns.

Days until the 2018 election: 68.

Upcoming election dates — Sept. 4: Massachusetts primaries. — Sept. 6: Delaware primaries. — Sept. 11: New Hampshire primaries. — Sept. 12: Rhode Island primaries. — Sept. 13: New York (state-level) primaries.

MIDTERM MESSAGING — Republicans are still confident that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be an effective bogeyman come November. The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker: “The Congressional Leadership Fund “commissioned a post-special election poll in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, barely won by Republican Troy Balderson. The survey showed Pelosi to have a 61 percent unfavorable rating, a sentiment CLF pollster Gene Ulm said is consistent across the suburban districts that could tip the House to the Democrats. ‘Some in the media have attempted to say that Nancy Pelosi is not a useful lighting rod for GOP campaigns to tie their opponent to, but the survey data will show how divisive Pelosi can be,’ Ulm wrote in a polling memo for CLF that was shared with the Washington Examiner.”

POLLS POLLS POLLS — The race in NY-22 is extremely close. POLITICO New York’s Bill Mahoney: “Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi has a slim 46-44 lead over freshman Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney in an upstate congressional district, a poll released by the Siena College Research Institute [Wednesday] found. ‘In a district with 30,000 more Republicans than Democrats, incumbent Republican Tenney is barely holding her own versus Democratic challenger Brindisi,’ said Siena spokesman Steve Greenberg. ‘Brindisi is supported by 24 percent of Republicans, holding Tenney to 66 percent Republican support, while Brindisi is supported by 80 percent of Democrats.’”

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY — In gubernatorial races up and down the Eastern seaboard, Democrats are picking black progressives as their standard-bearers, a sign of the changing power structures within the party. POLITICO’s David Siders: “A large number of African Americans are running for competitive House seats in majority-white districts. A black Democrat could become the next House speaker, and several of the Democratic Party's top-tier prospective presidential candidates are black. ‘There is an undeniable energy behind women and candidates of color across the country, and it is in direct defiance to the man in the Oval Office right now,’ said Bill Burton, a veteran Democratic consultant. …

“Their candidacies have drawn an especially sharp contrast to Trump. While the president has frequently pointed in his speeches to low black and Hispanic unemployment in an appeal to non-white voters, his remarks about ‘rapists’ from Mexico and immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries have enraged Democrats. … [Florida nominee Andrew] Gillum addressed the White House explicitly — and race implicitly — when he told supporters at his victory party that his campaign would paint an alternative to ‘the derision and the division that has been coming out of our White House.’”

— Race has swung to the forefront of the Florida gubernatorial election. POLITICO Florida’s Marc Caputo: “‘The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda, with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state,’ said [GOP Rep. Ron] DeSantis [on Fox News], who praised Gillum’s debate performances and described the Democrat as ‘an articulate candidate for those far-left views.’ Florida's Democratic Party chairwoman, Terrie Rizzo, called out the simian metaphor on Twitter and said ‘it’s disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles." Gillum retweeted the comment without adding anything.

“A Fox News anchor later took the extraordinary step of saying ‘we do not condone this language’ by DeSantis. DeSantis spokesman Brad Herold called Rizzo’s claim ‘absurd’ and said DeSantis was criticizing Gillum over his ideology, not his race.”

OPPO BOOK — Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat running in Virginia’s 7th District, kicked off a firestorm after accusing the CLF of “improperly” obtaining an unredacted copy of her security clearance application. But BuzzFeed News’ Jason Leopold tweeted that the fault appears to land in the Postal Service’s lap: “I've confirmed through USPS that someone at the agency's human resources division released Abigail Spanberger's entire personnel file, including her SF-86, in UNREDACTED form to America Rising, which assumed it was in response to their #FOIA request filed in July.” More details from Leopold and Grace Wyler: “Documents viewed by BuzzFeed News show that the request for Spanberger’s entire civilian personnel file was submitted early last month to the National Personnel Records Center, a division of the National Archives. The request, which sought records related to the former CIA officer’s employment dates, salaries, title, and position descriptions, did not explicitly mention the federal security clearance application, known as an SF-86. …

“The decision by USPS to release the unredacted document was unusual, FOIA and security clearance expert Bradley Moss, an attorney with Mark S. Zaid, P.C., told BuzzFeed News. … ‘Someone at the USPS FOIA office is getting fired,’ Moss said. … ‘SF-86 paperwork is categorically privacy-protected and to my knowledge has never been released through FOIA to a third party absent a privacy waiver,’ he added.”

NRCC PATRIOT ADDS — The NRCC added its fourth round of incumbents to its Patriot Program for endangered members. The adds: Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Kevin Yoder (KS-03), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Steve Chabot (OH-01), Troy Balderson (OH-12).

BYE BYE BLANKENSHIP — The West Virginia Supreme Court rejected Don Blankenship’s bid to get on the Senate ballot on the Constitution Party line because of the state’s “sore loser” law. "The West Virginia Secretary of State is ordered to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that Donald L. Blankenship does not appear on the 2018 General Election Ballot for the Office of United States Senator for the State of West Virginia," the court's ruling read.

ON THE AIRWAVES — An onslaught of outside groups are going up in the Arizona Senate race. Campaign Pro’s James Arkin: “One Nation, a nonprofit aligned with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has booked $700,000 in ads to start Thursday and run through Sept. 5. Majority Forward, a nonprofit aligned with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, booked $434,000 worth of ads to start Friday and run through Sept. 10. The NRSC has also booked approximately $2.1 million in ads beginning the day after Labor Day and running through mid-October on broadcast, cable and satellite. The DSCC has booked more than $5 million in Arizona, but the buy doesn't begin until late September.” One Nation also released a new ad.

— Rep. Devin Nunes is dropping his firebreathing public persona in this new ad in CA-22. Instead, we see a bipartisan message. “Valley Republicans have been working with independents and conservative Democrats to rein in the taxes passed by Sacramento politicians,” he says in the ad. Nunes’ ad also hits on a key rallying point for Republicans in the state: a ballot initiative to repeal a gas tax.

TRUMP ON THE TRAIL — President Donald Trump will rally for Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) in Fargo, N.D., on Sept. 7, per KVRR. He’ll also head to Montana to rally for Matt Rosendale on Sept. 6, via the Billings Gazette.

CONGRATS ALL AROUND — Outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) sent a congratulations to both women trying to succeed him — Democrat and Republican. “Congratulations to [Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema] and [GOP Rep. Martha McSally] for winning their respective primary races last night,” he tweeted. “This seat is now reserved for the first female senator in Arizona's history. How cool is that!” McSally has kept Flake at more than arm’s-length, and the president tweeted early Wednesday that McSally had rejected Flake’s endorsement (in a tweet of his own, Flake said he made “no endorsement in this race”).

ON THE DEBATE STAGE — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo met Cynthia Nixon for the one and only Democratic gubernatorial primary debate, which quickly turned contentious. POLITICO New York’s Gloria Pazmino: “The two wasted little time before they were at each other’s throats. Months of attacks in the press boiled over into a heated, one-hour debate ... as the candidates managed to eke out some policy differences between leveling attacks, calling names and talking over each other.”

— Cuomo also ruled out running in 2020, saying the only way he wouldn’t complete a third term as governor (which would go through 2022) was “if God strikes me dead,” per The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher.

WAY DOWN BALLOT — State attorney general contests are drawing more and more attention as party’s look to the future. The Hill’s Reid Wilson: “Today, once-sleepy contests to become a state’s chief legal officer are getting new attention from major party donors, who see those offices as both a bulwark against an overreaching federal government and as a bench-building exercise that will highlight and promote the next generation of national leaders. … Party officials and strategists overseeing the 30 attorneys general seats up for election this year say those races are attracting an incredible amount of donor interest and spending. Some estimate the two sides will spend more than $100 million on the contests, two or three times more than has ever been spent on attorneys general races before.”

CODA — FACT OF THE DAY: GOP Rep. Michael McCaul’s home in West Austin, Texas used more water than any other single-family residence in the city in 2017, using over 1.4 million gallons, per the Austin American-Statesman.

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