How do-it-yourself PACs are changing the race for president

Neither man is affiliated with Carson’s campaign, and each has met him only a few times. But they are the chairman and campaign director, respectively, of the National Draft Ben Carson for President political committee, and they have taken it upon themselves to build a national movement in support of Carson.

Their model is not unique. In this presidential election cycle, groups like the pro-Hillary Clinton outfit Ready For Hillary have greased the skids for candidates long before they acted like candidates: raising millions of dollars and, as important, mining contact information from hundreds of thousands of potential supporters, while having no particular claim to their namesake candidate.

For all of the potential benefits these groups have to nascent presidential campaigns, there are also distinct risks of detracting from a central message or fundraising. Ready for Hillary won the quiet approval of Clintonworld after proving it could stay in line with Clinton’s statements, and her allies were impressed by the list of millions of supporters that Ready for Hillary was building.

Sousa and Robinson said they have attempted to also tread lightly and only follow Carson’s lead.

“We try to emulate Dr. Carson as best we can,” Sousa said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “We have worked our proverbial butts off to ensure that Dr. Ben Carson trusts what we do and that we will do no harm.”

“We are careful,” Jordan added. “We are careful not to break the law. We are careful not to do something that would result in collateral damage.”

By their calculations, their efforts have amassed 30,000 volunteers, 160,000 donors and $13.5 million.

In December, however, Carson’s spokesman Armstrong Williams characterized the group’s results as a “mixed bag” in an interview with Roll Call. While Sousa and Robinson had certainly not hurt enthusiasm for Carson, Williams reasoned, their fundraising might have been a drag on Carson’s own.

“People are using their hard-earned money,” Williams told Roll Call. “People giving money think it’s going to Dr. Carson, and it’s not.”

The committee has indeed raised a significant chunk of money, but it has spent even more, primarily on operational costs. Sousa, for his part, has received $7,500 monthly from the committee, which would amount to an annual salary of approximately $90,000. Meanwhile, as of the end of January, the committee owed nearly $1 million to various vendors, with just shy of $650,000 on hand.

But Carson’s allies have since come around, at least publicly, to the role the Draft Ben Carson PAC is playing.

“I’ve never felt any heartburn over them being out there at all,” said Terry Giles, the chairman of Carson’s exploratory committee and his likely campaign manager. “I’ve felt that they’ve handled themselves pretty appropriately.”

The group’s most valuable contribution to Carson’s campaign-in-waiting, Giles said, was the list of supporters the group has compiled, which could later be rented to Carson’s campaign.

Carson’s allies were nervous with one negative ad put out by the group, because they “didn’t want to see anything negative about other candidates,” Giles said.

“But that got cleaned up right away,” he added.

And Robinson and Sousa believe they have received the blessing of Carson himself to keep doing what they’re doing, although federal elections laws prohibit super PACs from coordinating directly with candidates.

Last year, Robinson bought a table at a fundraiser where Carson would be sitting, and mentioned to Carson the petitions Draft Ben Carson had sent to Carson, urging him to run for president. The petitions included not only names, but emails and phone numbers as well.

“I asked him, ‘How do you like those petitions we’ve been sending you, with all of those phone numbers and emails?” Jordan said. “He smiled and said, ‘You know, those would be very useful if you’re running for president.’ ”