Inside The Shadow GOP

[ProSense]

Inside The Shadow GOP

A network of independent Republican allies represent the leading edge of the new world of campaign finance.

by Peter H. Stone, Center for Public Integrity

Monday, Oct. 4, 2010

For many powerful GOP operatives and allied fundraisers, the luncheon last April felt like one part reunion and one part strategy summit for the fall. In reality, the get-together at Karl Rove's house and office on Weaver Terrace N.W. was a bit of both.

The crowd of about two dozen had assembled at the behest of Rove and former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie. The powerful pair had teamed up earlier in the year to help launch American Crossroads, a non-profit group with separate political advocacy and grassroots lobbying arms that together plan to spend $52 million this year to help a few dozen GOP Senate and House candidates with television ads and get-out-the-vote drives.

But as the crew of old GOP friends munched on chicken pot pies, Rove and Gillespie had another, larger agenda: expanding cooperation. And they found an altogether receptive audience. Among those in attendance: Bill Miller, the political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which has announced a record election budget of $75 million; former Sen. Norm Coleman, the CEO of the American Action Network, a fledgling group aiming to spend about $25 million; and Steven Law, a former general counsel at the Chamber and the president of American Crossroads.

Altogether, the groups represented at the lunch -- and a few others some of whom have attended subsequent sessions -- plan to pour some $300 million into ads and get out the vote efforts to help scores of Republican Congressional candidates win in November, an effort that has been likened to a shadow GOP.

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1. George W. Bush* never wanted to be president.

The Shadow Republicans have installed a figurehead ever since Reagan. Although G.H.W. Bush might have had a little more on the ball. I'm not sure who they want to put in next. None of the candidates that are in the polls seem the type. So the Shadow Republicans might just sit 2012 out. A win for Obama. Probably their next target will be 2016 with another Bush.