SUPER PAC EYES DERAILING LIZ
Bay State GOP group backing Diehl for bid
A new Bay State super PAC is hoping to knock U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren out of the 2020 presidential race before it even begins by making next year’s Senate re-election campaign closer than expected, vowing to spend up to $10 million — and to convince other groups to kick in more.
“My personal goal is to get national resources into this race,” said Marty Lamb, the co-founder of the Deal Her Out PAC. “Factions within the Democratic Party want to see Elizabeth Warren run for president in 2020. With a strong campaign, hopefully to oust her in 2018, she won’t be able to move forward.” Lamb told the Herald the super PAC is the only one exclusively dedicated to defeating Warren’s 2018 re-election efforts. He said the PAC wants to raise and spend $10 million before Election Day — mostly on print, TV, radio and digital ads. “We’re hoping to make enough of a dent on the national scale to make both parties feel that Massachusetts is in play as a pickup for the Republicans,” said Lamb, before conceding: “We have a lot of work to do.” Re pub lican state Rep. Geoff Diehl is expected to challenge Warren and make an official announcement as early as this month. Diehl, a former cochair of President Trump’s Massachusetts campaign, worked with Lamb on the 2013 ballot question to repeal the gas tax. Bonnie Johnson, the PAC’s other co-president, was Trump’s Massachusetts field director.
Deal Her Out is a “not so subtle” reference to Diehl, said Lamb, though the PAC, for now, is focused more on attacking Warren than promoting the Whitman Republican. Lamb said he believes Warren is putting her national progressive fan base ahead of her Massachusetts constituents with an eye toward a bid for the White House in three years. “She’s more interested in New York, D.C., Ho l lywood elitists than the agenda of the state, and people in Massachusetts ca re about that ,” said Lamb.
“She’s vulnerable in Massachusetts by being completely AWOL from Massachusetts,” he added. “The only time you see her in Massachusetts is really if she’s doing something like selling her book or her own campaign-related events.”
But the Warren camp disputes that claim, noting she’s held six town halls in the Bay State since February and has three more set for this month, including one in Pittsfield Saturday.
“It’s no surprise that out-of-state billionaires — through various dark money groups — will attempt to buy the election for them,” said Warren spokeswoman Kristen Orthman.
“Senator Warren is focused on doing her job for the people of Massachusetts, like fighting against Republican attempts to rip health care away from 22 million Americans,” Orthman said. “And she’s calling for another ‘People’s Pledge’ as one way to prevent the super rich influence in our electoral system.”
The “People’s Pledge” was the 2012 agreement between Warren and then Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Scott Brown to keep out third-party spending.
This time around, that would appear to benefit Warren, whose campaign already has a healthy $9.2 million in the bank, as of March 31, according to FEC filings. She hauled in $5.2 million in just the first three months of this year.
The Herald reported last month that the American Bridge 21st Century PAC, a pro-Democratic group partly funded by billionaire George Soros, has already started hiring trackers to dog Diehl and vowed to do the same for other GOP challengers to Warren.
On the right, America Rising, led by Colin Reed, a former Brown campaign staffer, has made Warren a prime target in 2018.
Outside groups taking out ads about Warren aren’t limited to Massachusetts either.
In fact, Republicans appear ready to use Warren in the same way Democrats are expected to use President Trump in the midterms — by linking them to their opponents.
In Florida yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a Facebook ad targeting Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s up for re-election in 2018, claiming he “votes with Warren 90 percent of the time,” and suggesting he supports single-payer health care, as Warren does.