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Divided We Stand

Divided We Stand
New book about the 2020 election.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Outside Spending, Presidential Candidates, and Non-Coordination Coordination

Earlier posts dealt with outside groups and the challenge of indirect coordination.

Matea Gold and Melanie Mason write in The Los Angeles Times:

Faced with a growing cacophony of outside voices, allies of the Republican candidates are scrambling to set up their own independent vehicles.

"Everybody will have one — there will be a sidecar for every motorcycle," said one GOP operative familiar with the discussions.

Restore Our Future PAC, a super PAC created in October to campaign on behalf of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, raised $12 million in the first half of the year, according to officials. Among its founders is Carl Forti, who was a top Romney campaign aide in 2008 and is currently political director for American Crossroads.

Another group, Americans for Rick Perry, was started by La Jolla-based GOP consultant Bob Schuman last month in the hopes of luring the Texas governor into the presidential race. The group raked in $400,000 in just three weeks, which Schuman said will go toward on-the-ground activities in Iowa.

The new dynamic means that the candidates will need to telegraph their approach to allied groups working on their behalf, without officially coordinating.

"In some ways, today's campaign is like running a no-huddle offense in football," said GOP media strategist Brad Todd. "Everyone has got to have hand signals and read each other's eyes."