Conventional wisdom – and the recent spanking that Elizabeth Warren delivered to Scott Brown – suggest that the more a Senate race in Massachusetts is seen in national terms, the less chance the Republican has of winning. And I think that’s probably accurate. People may think Scott Brown or Gabriel Gomez or whoever is a nice enough guy, but really, nobody with any sense wants Mitch McConnell running the show down in DC.
So I find it interesting that national Republicans are trying aggressively to nationalize this race. Check out this email that landed in my inbox yesterday, ostensibly from Jerry Moran. (Who? I had to look him up too. The junior Senator from Kansas, as it turns out, and the current chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.)
From: Senator Jerry Moran
Subject: Fire Reid
Date: May 23, 2013 12:59:54 PM EDT
To: blue@vps28478.inmotionhosting.com
Reply-To: info@nrsc.orgBlue,
The Massachusetts Senate special election is heating up. This race is neck and neck, even the Democrats’ own polling shows just a few points between Republican Gabriel Gomez and Democrat Congressman Ed Markey. We need your support to help us secure the resources necessary to win critical Senate races.
Ed Markey’s career is a living testament to failed Washington policies. Throughout his 37-year career in Washington, the Congressman has voted to raise the debt ceiling 31 times and in favor of higher taxes 271 times. He was an architect of the Wall Street bailouts. He was involved in Congressional check bouncing scandals to the total of $63,000, and he has repeatedly voted to give himself pay raises with taxpayer dollars. To sum it up, Ed Markey isn’t needed in the Senate, but new leadership is.
The son of immigrants who received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, who became a decorated Navy SEAL and successful businessman, Gabriel Gomez is exactly the kind of new, results-oriented leader we need to fix Washington today.
Contribute $100, $50, $25, or whatever you can afford today to help us win on Election Day and build a new Republican majority in the Senate.
With your help, we can fire Harry Reid and put America back on course.
Thanks,
Senator Jerry Moran
Chairman, NRSCThis is a paid solicitation being sent by Brown for U.S. Senate, Inc. and is not an endorsement by Senator Brown and does not represent a contribution to any candidate or political committee. This message reflects the sole opinions and representations of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who is responsible for the contents of this message. You are receiving this message because you are a member of Scott Brown’s online community.
A couple of points jump out at me. The big one, of course, is “Fire Harry Reid.” That means only one thing: the GOP sees a Gomez win as a critical part of retaking control of the U.S. Senate, removing Harry Reid from the position of majority leader, and replacing him with a Republican – presumably Mitch McConnell. So someone needs to ask Gomez post-haste whether, if elected, he will support McConnell for majority leader.
I also love the fact that the fine print declares that the email “is a paid solicitation being sent by Brown for U.S. Senate, Inc.” Somehow, the zombie that is Scott Brown’s Senate campaign will not die, but rather continues to stagger mindlessly around the highways and byways of Massachusetts in search of brains, or failing that, campaign donations. I wonder if Brown or his campaign committee is making any money off of the NRSC using his mailing list?
Relatedly, Roll Call reports that the NRSC has dispatched a handful of staffers to our fair state.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has committed at least four staffers to help nominee Gabriel Gomez in the final weeks of the June 25 contest…. Money remains a major hurdle for Gomez to overcome against the well-funded Markey. So the NRSC sent two fundraisers to help Gomez open some financial doors. Sarah Morgan, a regional political director, arrived Wednesday to organize volunteer efforts over the next few weeks. And Kevin McLaughlin, a senior adviser, is in Boston to assist with communications and general strategy.
Say, I thought Gomez was a new kind of politician who doesn’t care for the old Washington ways of doing things. Since that’s true, I’m sure that he will promptly tell the NRSC “thanks but no thanks,” and send those DC hacks back to Washington where they belong.
Riiiiiiight.
petr says
… much reality on the ground in Mass may, or may not, be against Gomez and the RNC, that won’t stop out of state money from pouring in.
Exactly. Campaign donations. That’s the way Scott Brown won the last time he won: tsunami of cash at the most opportune times. As much as I am distasteful of Gomez (which distaste grows larger by the hour…) and of the general woeful state of the GOP in the CommonWealth, I’m not willing to say that heaps of out of state money won’t make this race competitive.
Sad, but true.
fenway49 says
Meanwhile, as Charley pointed out, the NRSC is involved in David S. Bernstein’s Eye Roller of the Day: calling Markey the “first to violate the People’s Pledge.” That being the pledge Gomez (a) already violated, including with the NRSC’s own fundraiser for him; (b) never signed, rendering it inoperative.
With friends like these…
johnk says
like Sullivan did during the primary. Cha ching! Looks like Scotty is still squeezing his email list for everything he can get out of it.
davemb says
Standard procedure for all the fundraising groups, including the ones on our side, is to send out an email with any conceivable angle that might bring in some money. I wouldn’t bet a whole lot on any money, sent to the NRSC in response to this email, actually being spent in MA.
There were always national mailings raising money “on behalf of” the hopeless challengers to Kennedy and Kerry, not that such money ever saw MA again.