Cruz has sent at least two emails to supporters ahead of the FEC deadline. (Al Drago/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
With the year coming to a close, candidates for office have their eyes on a Federal Election Commission deadline at the end of the financial quarter and are pulling out all of the stops to get supporters to give them money. Here are some of the most blatant, blunt and just plain bizarre asks Roll Call has found on the trail.
Rand and Jeb call in Daddy
Sen. Rand Paul and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may have disagreements on foreign policy, but both are relying on their famous politician dads to help them raise money. On Monday, Paul released an audio message from his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012.
“I want to make sure Rand has a strong showing,” Paul says in the message. “So please dig deep today and throughout the end-of-the-year moneybomb to help Rand fully fund these grassroots operations.”
Bush’s campaign emailed a message from his father, former President George H.W. Bush, encouraging supporters to donate.
“This is the final public deadline before voting begins in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada,” the former president says in the email. “That’s why a group of generous supporters are matching every donation that comes by midnight on Thursday.”
Using the Koch Brothers
There are few bigger boogeymen for the left than conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch. As a result, Democratic candidates are saying donors need to counteract the Koch brothers influence by giving them money.
The campaign of Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, a candidate for Sen. Roy Blunt’s seat, sent an email from his wife saying ads by the Koch network would smear her husband.
“Their ads will probably have so many lies, I won’t even recognize they’re talking about my husband,” his wife writes before saying Kander’s campaign doesn’t need a special interest group to fight attacks. “We just need to his our goals, one at a time, to build grassroots strength.”
In his run against Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, former Gov. Ted Strickland got some musical muscle with the help of songwriting legend Carole King, who notes she backed up Strickland’s wife in some of his wife’s performances, who also spoke about the Kochs spending money to support Portman.
“The Koch brothers may have deep pockets,” King says. “But Ted has you and me.”
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