The Republican Party’s corps of potential 2016 presidential candidates is getting ripped in a new campaign from liberal media watchdog David Brock’s super PAC that describes the state executives as unelectable bumblers and crooks.
The George Soros-funded group, built to provide liberals with opposition research, has produced a mother lode of data on some of the GOP’s top 13 governors. It amounts to a preemptive strike likely presidential candidates such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
“Once upon a time, after the shellacking Republicans took in 2012, Republicans said the road back ran through state capitals and GOP governors who were supposedly popular and had broad appeal. Whoops!” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Brock’s American Bridge 21st Century PAC.
The campaign being launched Friday includes a 36-page report titled “Crooked Chiefs, An Overview of the Scandals Facing Nearly Half of GOP Governors.” It is written like an oppo research report, including links to stories and reports to back up the charges.
The group is also unveiling a public relations push around the “unlikely 13” who Woodhouse said “have had their prospects for current and/or future elected office harmed – perhaps irreparably in some cases – by ethics and/or legal challenges.”
A key example is former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, just convicted of being too cozy with a businessman who gave the one-time GOP vice presidential prospect loans and clothes.
None of the charges in the report are new, for example Christie is targeted for “Bridgegate.” But it is an effort to show that the various charges and slams at the governors have legs and will be used against them by liberals if they decide to run for president.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. AB21 Report
