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In response to
"The original story was from WSJ -- nm"
by
sweet baboo
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I'll c&p
Posted by
Roger More (aka rogermore)
Nov 20 '15, 13:45
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A well-connected GOP operative alarmed by the enduring strength of Republican Donald Trump’s presidential bid is planning a “guerrilla campaign” backed by secret donors to knock him out of the race.
Liz Mair, former online communications director of the Republican National Committee, recently created Trump Card LLC to “defeat and destroy” the celebrity businessman’s candidacy, according to a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
“In the absence of our efforts, Trump is exceedingly unlikely to implode or be forced out of the race,” the Trump Card memo says. “The stark reality is that unless something dramatic and unconventional is done, Trump will be the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton will become president.”
An increasing number of Republicans are concerned that Mr. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about different minority groups, including Hispanics and Muslims, are damaging the party’s image and will undermine efforts to reach a broader electorate in a general election. Expectations that his campaign would fizzle out have been dashed as he has remained atop the polls since the summer.
The anti-Trump crusade aims to unite contributors who are backing a variety of the Republican primary candidates, Ms. Mair said. Opposition research, grass roots organizing and donor outreach has been going on for weeks, Ms. Mair said, while declining to name any supporters.
“It’s loosely organized and highly confidential,” said Ms. Mair. “I certainly know donors who are very happy that their fingerprints will be kept off things.”
Asked about Ms. Mair’s campaign, Mr. Trump responded through his spokeswoman Hope Hicks that Ms. Mair “worked for Scott Walker and lost her job—who can blame her?”
Ms. Mair’s effort is the latest attempt by an outside group to push back against Mr. Trump. A super PAC backing Republican rival John Kasich is running commercials criticizing him, and the Club for Growth, an economic conservative group in Washington, ran attack ads in Iowa and plans to resume airing them.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump was asked about Ms. Mair’s efforts but didn’t immediately comment on Friday.
As a limited liability company, Trump Card LLC wouldn’t have to disclose its donors to the Federal Election Commission. Viveca Novak, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, said she was aware of no restrictions on the kinds of political activities that could be funded through an LLC. “Anyone can set one up,” she said. “You don’t know who is behind it.”
Ms. Mair, who has ties to the libertarian movement and the GOP establishment, said donors backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Mr. Kasich and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are interested, and some worry that going public could hurt their candidate.
Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant, said in an interview that he is prepared to make ads for the new group. Wilson isn’t involved in fundraising but predicted that a number of Republican donors will start bankrolling an anti-Trump effort.
“People are finally taking the threat that Trump will destroy the Republican Party and lose the general election to Hillary Clinton seriously,” said Mr. Wilson, who recently started working for a new super PAC backing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
The super PAC supporting Mr. Kasich, New Day for America, on Thursday began airing a series of ads that show Mr. Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson while invoking the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks. “On-the-job training for president does not work,” the ad says.
Mr. Trump responded by threatening to sue the super PAC. “John Kasich should focus his special interest money on building up his failed image, not negative ads on me,” Mr. Trump said in a stream of edgy posts on Twitter.
Mr. Bush, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday, criticized Mr. Trump’s proposals to tighten U.S. security with measures such as closing mosques. Mr. Trump also appeared to endorse setting up a Muslim registration database.
“You talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people, that’s just wrong,” Mr. Bush said. “It’s manipulating people’s angst and their fears. That’s not strength, that’s weakness.”
Mr. Trump has cited national-security concerns as paramount.
The new anti-Trump effort is planning a more direct and blunt approach. The group’s memo said it would be pitching opposition research to media in early-voting states, radio and television ads and Web videos that attract media attention “based on its outrageousness and boundary-breaking or bizarre nature.”
One possible ad would link Mr. Trump’s views and style to his celebrity foe, Rosie O’Donnell, in hopes of provoking a reaction from the businessman, according to the memo.
Other possible tactics include fake pro-Trump ads that show him supporting socialized medicine, seizing property through eminent domain, and other positions that stray from GOP orthodoxy; using a Trump impersonator to show him insulting people; and attacking his business record in “stark, nasty terms.”
The goal, according to the memo, isn’t to covert Mr. Trump’s supporters into backing other candidates but to dissuade them from voting altogether, especially in New Hampshire’s influential first-in-the-nation primary.
Mr. Trump didn’t respond to a request for comment.
For financing, the memo said the group is seeking $250,000 from donors in multiple GOP presidential camps.
Ms. Mair helped lead the online media campaign for 2008 Republican nominee John McCain while at the RNC and advised presidential candidate Carly Fiorina during her 2010 Senate race. Most recently, she worked briefly for Mr. Walker, the Wisconsin governor and former White House contender. When pre-campaign postings by Ms. Mair disparaging Iowans were unearthed, she resigned from Mr. Walker’s staff.
Until Mr. Kasich’s super PAC ads, there has been little paid advertising attacking Mr. Trump. That is in part because donors have been reluctant to invest in such efforts because they assumed that his candidacy would fizzle on its own.
Some candidates, such as Mr. Cruz, have been reluctant to attack Mr. Trump because they hope to inherit his supporters if and when his candidacy fades. Others candidates willing to criticize him, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have either remained at the back of the pack or dropped out of the race,
Club for Growth, which also doesn’t disclose its donors, earlier this fall spent $1 million on anti-Trump ads that ran for three weeks in Iowa. The ads attacked his positions on taxes, trade, and other issues that the group said exposed him as a liberal. Doug Sachtelben, a Club for Growth spokesman, said they believed the ads contributed to a drop in Mr. Trump’s standing in Iowa polls in early October, when Mr. Carson rose to first place in several surveys.
Mr. Sachtelben said the group hoped to run more ads like that in Iowa and New Hampshire but couldn’t say when.
“We’re still in the fundraising stage,” he said.
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