Ted Cruz isn't helping fellow GOP senators get reelected. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Cruz's next battle

Ted Cruz is at it again.

Cruz said last fall he wouldn’t raise money for a controversial group attacking fellow Republicans. But the Texas senator has since written a fundraising missive for another conservative group that’s backing the primary challengers to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others.


This time, the tea party freshman has helped the lower-profile Madison Project, a political action committee working to defeat McConnell and Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas and Thad Cochran of Mississippi — and prop up other primary challengers in 2014 midterm races. In the mailer, Cruz asks donors to “pull out all the stops” to elect “solid, principled, conservative fighters” who will “not answer to the party bosses in Washington, D.C.”

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While Cruz doesn’t single out any candidate by name, he praised the group for recruiting “viable conservative candidates” and pushing them through “every single step of the pathway to victory” in 2014.

“Our nation desperately needs more strong conservative fighters in the Senate … not more moderate, career politicians who will sacrifice principle and compromise with Democrats at every turn,” Cruz writes in the fundraising solicitation. “In short, it’s time to elect some conservatives who won’t run from a fight!”

The letter — which is undated but was provided to POLITICO from a person who received it in the last month — comes after Cruz told GOP senators last October he would not raise money for the Senate Conservatives Fund, another conservative group launching full-throated attacks against GOP senators in their 2014 primary campaigns. Cruz’s decision to avoid fundraising for the group was seen by GOP senators as an olive branch of sorts after the Texan and his colleagues engaged in an acrimonious battle over the government shutdown last fall.

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But earlier this month, Cruz provoked another fight with his fellow Republicans by demanding a 60-vote threshold to raise the debt ceiling, a move that effectively forced McConnell and the senior GOP senator from his state, John Cornyn, to vote to advance the legislation in the heat of their primary campaigns. Now, the Madison Project is running a Web ad bashing McConnell for his procedural vote on the debt ceiling measure.

Cruz’s fundraising for the Madison Project is the latest iteration of the intraparty war that has consumed the GOP since the rise of the tea party in 2010. While tea party activists argue that weak-willed Republicans are bending to Democrats’ every whim, GOP senators say groups like the Madison Project make it more difficult to nominate electable Republicans who can help the party win the net of six seats necessary to take back the Senate this year.

“It does concern me when conservatives raise money to spend against other conservatives — as opposed to spending money on capturing the nine or so seats that are currently held by Democrats that we really have a great chance of winning,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

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On Tuesday, Cruz declined to comment when asked about his work with the Madison Project, first walking into the Senate chamber to cast a vote — “I gotta get in here and vote” — and later referring an inquiry to his press office. In an email, Cruz’s spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, said the Madison Project sent out his letter this year “based on a previous fundraising agreement last year.”

“They are involved in many races, including open seats, as well as advancing the conservative cause on many issues across the country,” Frazier said of the Madison Project, adding that Cruz has no other work scheduled with the group at the moment.

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The Madison Project doesn’t have the same kind of resources and notoriety as the SCF — the former had about $295,000 in cash-on-hand through the end of January compared with the $970,000 the SCF had in the bank. But the two groups engage in similar tactics by painting GOP senators as insufficiently conservative on bedrock party principles when they work with Democrats. The group, led by former Rep. Jim Ryun of Kansas, joined Cruz in calling on Republicans to take a hard line against Obamacare during the fight that sparked the 16-day government shutdown last October.

A spokeswoman for the Madison Project would not respond to multiple inquiries seeking comment.

In November, the group launched a five-week radio blitz backing state Sen. Chris McDaniel in his bid to defeat Cochran, a six-term Republican who has represented Mississippi since 1978. In December, it announced its support of Milton Wolf, a Kansas physician looking to defeat Roberts, a three-term veteran. And it has been working to bolster the candidacy of businessman Matt Bevin in his bid to take down the three-decade incumbent McConnell.

In a nearly two-minute Web ad released Tuesday, the Madison Project lashed out at McConnell’s vote earlier this month to break a filibuster threat to suspend the federal debt limit. Because of Cruz’s filibuster threat, which required 60 votes to overcome, McConnell was forced to choose between allowing the debt ceiling measure to advance — with no spending cuts attached — or voting to block the proposal and risk being blamed for a prospective debt default.

After McConnell voted to end the filibuster, the GOP leader endured sharp criticism from tea party groups and Bevin, his opponent in the primary. Cruz blasted his colleagues for engaging in “trickery.”

“As minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell should have served as a bulwark against President Obama’s demands for a blank check, especially after racking up $6.3 trillion in debt in just five years,” Drew Ryun, the Madison Project’s political director and son of the former Kansas congressman, said in a statement. “Yet, not only did McConnell deliver the president the votes for that blank check, he has completely adopted Obama’s false premise about default.”

A McConnell spokesman declined to comment on the Web ad or Cruz’s fundraising for the group.

The Madison Project is also backing other House and Senate GOP candidates seeking seats that are either open or occupied by Democrats, including candidates challenging the choices of the party establishment. In Louisiana, for instance, the group is endorsing Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel, despite the belief in Washington GOP circles that Rep. Bill Cassidy is best suited to defeat Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in the fall. And it backed Rep. Paul Broun in the crowded GOP primary in Georgia, even though some Republicans privately fear his nomination could cost his party a critical victory in a red state.

In its media releases, the group often touts its early endorsement of Cruz in his 2012 primary battle, calling it the “first” such group to do so. And Cruz seemed to return the favor in his fundraising letter, saying the group is a “premier” PAC that helped him defeat a “RINO” who was a “well-funded moderate” and a “go-along-to-get-along” politician, in an apparent reference to Republican David Dewhurst, the Texas lieutenant governor who was Cruz’s chief rival in that GOP primary.

“It is critical to lay the groundwork right now to do the same thing in 2014 and finally take back the Senate for conservatives,” Cruz said, also citing the story of his father fleeing to the United States from Cuba in 1957.

Cruz’s work to help the SCF last year, particularly during the government shutdown fight, led to many angry public and private exchanges between him and his GOP colleagues. But after the Texas freshman announced he wouldn’t raise money for the SCF or back his colleagues’ primary opponents, he had reached a détente of sorts with them.

“It sometimes makes for some uncomfortable lunches,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said when asked about GOP senators working with conservative outside groups launching barbs at his colleagues.

Indeed, after the debt ceiling vote this month, Cruz’s criticism of his colleagues’ handling of the episode, and his work with the Madison Project, the mood could certainly shift.

“As one who went through some of the allegedly conservative opposition, I’m not happy with that,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a tea party target in his 2012 reelection bid, said when asked about the Madison Project’s tactics. “I think we ought to be getting together to support each other so we can get this country back on track.”