The super PAC affiliated with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., opened September with an eye-popping $60 million to burn protecting the vulnerable House majority.
That’s an average of $900,000 per day that Congressional Leadership Fund can afford to spend blasting Democratic candidates during the final two months of the midterm election campaign — in the unlikely event the group doesn’t raise another dime through Nov. 6. As of Friday, the CLF megaphone was on the air with attack ads, some quite provocative, in more than 20 battleground districts.
The super PAC’s cash position was revealed this week to donors and lobbyists during a private presentation about its fall strategy at the group’s Washington headquarters. The Republican Party is defending a 23-seat House majority in a midterm election shaping up as backlash against President Trump.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, financed by wealthy Republican contributors steered to the organization by Ryan and other GOP leaders, is also underwriting a massive voter turnout operation. There are now 40 districts with a CLF field office running teams of volunteers that go door-to-door ginning up support for the party’s candidates.
With the party’s official House campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, being out-raised by its Democratic counterpart and falling behind in cash on hand, CLF is a critical component of the Republicans’ plans to hold the majority. As of July 31, the NRCC had raised $144.6 million for the two-year election cycle and banked $67.8 million, less than the $191 million raised and $72.5 million in available money to spend reported by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“The environment is going to be challenging, and you have to raise enough money,” Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Friday in remarks to reporters at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington.
Stivers, prohibited by federal law from coordinating with CLF, was speaking generally about the critical importance of fundraising. But the congressman is no doubt comforted by the help the NRCC is receiving from the super PAC.
