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Conservatives spent heavily in key Democratic primaries, filings show

(CNN) — An influential conservative nonprofit covertly funded a series of super PACs with names suggesting liberal provenance as the groups injected hundreds of thousands of dollars into key nominating Democratic contests across the country.

A new round of Federal Election Commission filings Saturday confirmed national Democrats’ suspicions that Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC and Blue California PAC were purposefully boosting candidates perceived as weaker contenders in a general election in hopes of engineering more favorable matchups for Republicans.

In the most striking example, Lead Left PAC spent more than $750,000 on advertisements in the Democratic primary in Texas’ 35th District, according to AdImpact data, boosting Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist and housing advocate whose use of antisemitic tropes in criticizing Israel drew national attention and widespread condemnation from members of both parties. Galindo denied that her remarks are antisemitic.

“She’s the only candidate who will stop Trump and ICE,” says one of the group’s ads – which ultimately proved unsuccessful, as Galindo lost in the primary runoff by nearly 30 points to Johnny Garcia.

Despite the group’s name and messaging, filings show that Lead Left PAC received more than $3 million in May from Conservative Americans PAC — itself funded by American Prosperity Alliance, the influential Republican nonprofit.

In a statement, Conservative Americans PAC acknowledged its role in seeking to shape the Democratic primaries...

...Quirks in campaign finance reporting deadlines allow for outside groups like these super PACs to register with the FEC in the weeks leading up to an election and spend unlimited amounts before they are required to file their first reports detailing fundraising and spending. Timed strategically, those reports won’t reach voters until the election is over.

That’s allowed groups like Lead Left PAC to mask the source of their funding, and intervene aggressively in primaries without tipping their hands to voters.

In addition to Texas’ 35th, Lead Left PAC spent $1.4 million in Pennsylvania’s 7th District opposing Bob Brooks, a top Democratic recruit who went on to win the primary anyway, and $300,000 in Nebraska’s 2nd District, another key battleground, targeting state Sen. John Cavanaugh, who lost to Denise Powell....

So it doesn't appear to work, just like the pool cleaning, and Iran.<--ME

https://www.kten.com/news/politics/conservatives-s...*jlp1*_ga*NDk3NTUwNTAwLjE3NzkzNzU0NjA.*_ga_6FK2TQWMQ2*czE3ODIxNDU2MTkkbzYzJGcwJHQxNzgyMTQ1NjE5JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..

Or is it the "uniparty", rather than actual conservatives?

Remember how Dems loved Fetterman, when he was first elected?

Fetterman: Popularity among Republicans ‘confusing’

“I, for some strange way, I am more popular with Republicans, which is, it’s confusing because I vote, I vote in the 90s [percentage-wise] Dem line, and I didn’t, and I haven’t vote[d] for the big ticket Trump ones like ‘big, beautiful bill’ or SAVE Act, and for those things,” Fetterman told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on his show Wednesday.

“So, I mean, there’s a lot of misinformation, I guess, but I am guilty of being a very proud supporter of Israel, and then I do support [Operation] Epic Fury,” he added.

In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 22 percent of Pennsylvania Democratic voters backed Fetterman’s job performance, with 62 percent against it. The same poll found that 73 percent of Pennsylvania Republican voters supported Fetterman’s job performance, while 18 percent did not. Overall, 46 percent of Keystone State voters were in favor of the senator’s performance on the job, while 40 percent were against.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5801767-john...

In the back of my mind, the Progressives who support Platner for his refusal to take money from the Israel lobby, are, perhaps, being played too.

Steve

Remember how Dems loved Fetterman, when he was first elected?

Yes, but then he suffered brain damage and became a Republican. 😊

"U.S. Senator John Fetterman suffered a serious, near-fatal ischemic stroke in May 2022 caused by a blood clot. The event left him with lingering auditory processing issues and aphasia, which impact his ability to rapidly process and produce spoken language.Key details of his condition and medical history:

Stroke Impact: The stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation and an enlarged heart. While he received rapid treatment, the lasting neurological effects required him to use real-time captioning tools during his work in the Senate.

Mental Health Struggles: Fetterman openly documented his subsequent battles with severe depression and anxiety, spending over 40 days in the traumatic brain injury unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment in 2023.

Subsequent Issues: He has a history of heart conditions and was briefly hospitalized after a fall associated with a ventricular fibrillation flare-up, though his implanted pacemaker/defibrillator safely restored his heart's rhythm."

Yes, but then he suffered brain damage and became a Republican. 😊

har, har, har...questionable taste.

What I am proposing is Fetterman was a Trojan horse. Maybe the same with Platner. I don't think MAGA has an exclusive on gullibility. I could get behind some of the things Trump campaigned on, but he showed us who his is in his first term. You would have needed to be a fool to believe all the populist stuff he was spewing.

Steve

What I am proposing is Fetterman was a Trojan horse. Maybe the same with Platner.

I mean....this is what comes with populism, right? You dial the salience up on economic issues so that you're appealing to and advancing the economic interests of the working folks. What that means, though, is that you might end up dialing down the salience of other interests relative to that. So you get a candidate who's committed to working-class economic issues but might deviate from the party line on a host of other things. They might be a military hawk, or not care too much about preserving voting rights for minorities, or be less concerned about dismantling the patriarchy or fighting climate change, or other issues that are deeply important for some parts of the Democratic coalition but aren't economic populism. For example, I'm not sure the Sunrise Movement is overly thrilled about the Democratic party's shift to economic populism, as they watch climate change get hugely downshifted in the list of Democratic priorities.

I don't think that's "Trojan Horse," so much as getting what it says on the tin. If you're opening up the party to candidates who prioritize progressive economic issues over all others, you're going to get some folks who hold some positions that don't square with the party line. They will downplay those issues during the campaign (we shouldn't talk about Graham Platner's obviously retrograde attitudes towards women and sensitivity towards minorities), but those deviations aren't exactly going to be a surprise. Indeed, they're somewhat of a feature - if you think working class voters want a candidate who talks like "normal" people do when the HR person isn't around, you're probably not getting a candidate who's going to have the same views on the issues that HR people care about than other progressive candidates.

What I am proposing is Fetterman was a Trojan horse.

I don’t see it that way.

For whatever reason, Republicans are more like herding cattle. Just point them in the direction you want them to go, and they’ll happily follow the herd.

Democrats are like herding cats. Good luck on that.

Reminds me of Joe Manchin, a person I detest. When I’d get in political discussions with friends, they would say that the Democrats should kick him out of the party.

My response was a little more, what I thought, practical. Even if Manchin only voted 40% of the time with the Democrats, that was 40% more that any other senator that West Virginia was going to send to D.C.

Fetterman comes from a conservative area in a 50-50 state. I’m not crazy about him, but he’s better than a Republican.

What I am proposing is Fetterman was a Trojan horse.

Except he's more of a Manchin or Sinema, isn't he? How often overall has he voted with the dems v.pubs? 93% 95%?

We're all angry with him for voting in some orange nominee along with a couple other issues, but would the republican alternative be better? It's also looking like he could well be primaried when his term cycle is closer...

I don't think he's a Trojan, just a little neurospicy.

Pete

...we shouldn't talk about Graham Platner's obviously retrograde attitudes towards women and sensitivity towards minorities...

If you cater to women and minorities, you are highly likely to win. Women are roughly 50% of the population, and non-white people are 42% (of which half would be women). You should be able to ignore white males pretty successfully (only about 29%) as long as you snag most of the rest.

Though there is some overlap in issues. Most of the above (regardless of ethnicity or gender) want jobs, want tame inflation, etc. If you don't address that, you're toast. After that, address women's and minority issues, and I'd think you're a winner (because, including women, you actually get the majority of the population).

53% of white women voted for Trump in the last election.

Being a rapey misogynist asshole is ok with them, I guess.

(we shouldn't talk about Graham Platner's obviously retrograde attitudes towards women and sensitivity towards minorities), but those deviations aren't exactly going to be a surprise. Indeed, they're somewhat of a feature - if you think working class voters want a candidate who talks like "normal" people do when the HR person isn't around,

Cenk and Ana, on TYT, are setting themselves up to be stabbed in the back. All they seems to care about now, is independence from the Israel lobby. What if he gets in office, and stands foursquare behind descending thousands of ICE storm troopers on cities and gunning people down in the streets because they are brown? oops

What is the role of a "leader"? Pander to the lowest common denominator? Or lead people to a higher standard? Remember Churchill's speech?

"If we can stand up to him [Hitler], all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age..."

Substitute "racism", "religious bigotry", or "intolerance". for "Hitler".

Currently, our "leader" panders to white, Christian, nationalists, telling them the path to paradise is through bigotry.

Steve

For whatever reason, Republicans are more like herding cattle. Just point them in the direction you want them to go, and they’ll happily follow the herd.

Democrats are like herding cats. Good luck on that.

Reminds me of another difference I've noted, especially on this board. I have numerous times seen various lefties on this board, when a right-winger posts some accusation of wrongdoing against a Democrat, whether it's Bill Clinton or whoever, take a position of "If they did something wrong, they should be prosecuted, as should anybody." Not that I read every post or even close to it, but I have never once seen one of our right-wingers take a similar stance--and I keep watching for it. They only seem to want the Democrats to be investigated/prosecuted. Hmmmm... I've seen it most often in connection with the Epstein files, but it's been on other issues too.

Democrats are like herding cats. Good luck on that.

Will Rogers said something along the lines of "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat".

But that was 90 years ago.

Now, Dems can be as blind is MAGA. From two years ago.

OPINION: “Vote blue no matter who” has a chokehold on American democracy

Critics may say I am relinquishing my voice, but I would argue that it wasn’t heard in the first place. The values I have are not amplified by any candidate. Biden is an opportunist who runs his campaign on being the lesser of two evils, making empty promises and wiping his shoes with them. Rather than hold him accountable, so-called progressives suffocate their movement by “voting blue no matter who.” As much as Biden would deny it, he and Donald Trump are two heads on the same oligarchic snake.

My grandmother was able to have conversations across party lines; many of her closest friends were conservative. They would discuss politics on her deck, a cigarette in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Now, that line of communication has been strategically cut. The Democrats and Republicans benefit from a divided public because it is easier to conquer. They rotate in and out of office, undoing the policies of their predecessor. They never pursue real reformation because they don’t work for the system, it works for them.

https://www.plymouth.edu/theclock/opinion-vote-blu...

Steve

but I have never once seen one of our right-wingers take a similar stance--and I keep watching for it.

A) No you don't. You don't interact with "our right wingers". (I see no reason to change that, btw)
B) It's 100% likely you're leaving out loads of context
C) libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots.

Cenk and Ana, on TYT, are setting themselves up to be stabbed in the back. All they seems to care about now, is independence from the Israel lobby. What if he gets in office, and stands foursquare behind descending thousands of ICE storm troopers on cities and gunning people down in the streets because they are brown? oops,

I mean - that's a possibility? Platner's candidacy is being elevated mostly because he holds the right positions on progressive economic issues and has more of a working-class biography than your typical consultant-set resume. So, yes. You run the risk that the guy who served a few tours in the military and has a nazi tattoo just might not hold to the standard progressive line on the use of military force, internal security force, or protection of minority rights.

And again, we see that some of this gets positioned by his supporters as a feature, not a bug. Working-class voters supposedly want someone who talks and acts like people do when HR isn't around. That isn't always thinking about progressive norms about anti-Racism and microaggressions and what not. And of course, if what you want is a candidate that's going to break with Israel, there's almost nothing better than a guy who gets a Nazi tattoo - because even the most innocent version of that is he's completely ignorant of how to avoid being insensitive to that particular persecuted minority.

C) libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots.

If I ever thought that, the Marc Rich pardon cured it.

Steve

A) No you don't. You don't interact with "our right wingers". (I see no reason to change that, btw)

I don't post or interact much on this board period, not just "with the right wingers". I have interacted at times in the past with a few on the right. I may not have interacted with you because I've seen enough to believe it to be pointless. When you are convinced that you absolutely know something--which is pretty much 100% of the time--there is no getting a point across to you. I've seen albaby try and try, to no avail. Kudos to albaby for keeping up the efforts though! BTW, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the point I was making. I may not post much, but I can still read.

B) It's 100% likely you're leaving out loads of context

You want context? The most immediate example that comes to mind, as I referenced, is the Epstein files. I think it was you, but it could have been someone else on the right, somehow came up with the idea that the left doesn't want the Epstein files released because it could incriminate Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, etc. The general response was "No, we do want the Epstein files released, and anyone who committed a crime should be prosecuted". I could easily enough have missed it, but I have not seen any of our board residents on the right take a similar position. What is your position on the matter of the release of the Epstein files?

C) libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots.

I have seen you called out on a very regular basis for not being able to accurately state the beliefs of those of us on the left. Here we have yet another example.

C) libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place,

We wait for some shred of evidence and don’t start screaming that so and so should be dragged out in handcuffs because some right wing hot house cooked up a stew of evidence free allegations.

Platner's candidacy is being elevated mostly because he holds the right positions on progressive economic issues and has more of a working-class biography than your typical consultant-set resume.

Trump ran on populist economic issues too.

Most of us should be able to agree that hollowing out the US industrial base is bad. Most of us should be able to agree that phasing in domestic content requirements, or levying tariffs on specific countries to offset their lower production costs, to remove the incentive to offshore production, would be beneficial for USians.

But what did Trump do? Imposed tariffs in such a precipitate manner that it is impossible for manufacturers to adopt, causing massive dislocations and soaring prices for "We The People". Why did he do that? I suspect because he wants to turn the clock back to 1912, by taking in so much money from the tariffs, he can repeal the income tax. Of course, by the time manufacturers adopt to the high tariffs, so that tariff revenue falls, the IRS would be destroyed, and be so cost prohibitive to rebuild, the tariffs stay instead. Most of the people running for Gov of Michigan right now are saying they will repeal the state income tax, without a word about how they would compensate for the lost revenue, beyond Reagan's "waste, fraud, and abuse" nonsense.

Most of us should be able to agree that the border should be secure, and "JCs" that hire illegals should have their nuggets cut off...financially. What did Trump do? Send storm troopers into blue cities to terrorize the civilian population.

Over 40 years ago, the leader of the conservative wing of the GOP, Barry Goldwater, supported gays openly serving in the military. Goldwater, an Air Force Reserve Major General, said gays have the same stake in the country as straight people, so they should be able to participate in it's defense. What did Trump and Kegsbreath do? Make being gay a borderline crime.

fwiw, Tucker Carlson and MTG both announced today they are leaving the GOP, because the GOP is no longer serving the US. They aren't the first. I remember former GOP Florida Gov Charlie Crist leaving the GOP, because he refused to be a part of where the party was going.

Tucker Carlson says he won’t support Republican Party

“The poll numbers now tell a pretty clear story about it. I would not support the Republican Party, there’s no chance,” Carlson said during a recent appearance on the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast. “Not because I support the Democratic Party. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Carlson asked how any American “could support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5934820-tucker-...

Steve

I have interacted at times in the past with a few on the right. I may not have interacted with you because I've seen enough to believe it to be pointless.

You seem like someone who draws conclusions absent evidence, which you've done here. Normally I ignore what you say but the level of self-delusion in that post was just too much to pass up.

You want context? The most immediate example that comes to mind, as I referenced, is the Epstein files. I think it was you, but it could have been someone else on the right, somehow came up with the idea that the left doesn't want the Epstein files released because it could incriminate Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, etc. The general response was "No, we do want the Epstein files released, and anyone who committed a crime should be prosecuted". I could easily enough have missed it, but I have not seen any of our board residents on the right take a similar position. What is your position on the matter of the release of the Epstein files?

LOLOLOLOLOL. Where was this Sense of Justice when Epstein was first jailed? For that matter, where was this "Believe All Women" stuff when Bill Clinton's (multiple) accusers came forward? Or Joe Biden's?

Come on. This imagined response of "anyone who committed a crime should be prosecuted" literally isn't a part of the history of the political left. This claim gets even funnier when it comes to political violence.

I have seen you called out on a very regular basis for not being able to accurately state the beliefs of those of us on the left.

Here's the thing: you people twist yourselves into mental knots all the time. We have a saying on the right: "Want to know what leftists are doing? Check out what they accuse everyone else of". Truer words never spoken.

Take this thread. It's hysterical that after literally 25 years of calling Republicans Nazis (Trump is merely the latest) you folks are now lining up behind the ACTUAL Nazi. Just as predicted, btw.

Here we have yet another example.

Yeah, not so much. Try harder.

"A) No you don't. You don't interact with "our right wingers". (I see no reason to change that, btw)
B) It's 100% likely you're leaving out loads of context
C) libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots." - Dumbass Dope

LOL

That is some hilarious projection. Ok Dope, just provide one post where you said "If they did something wrong, they should be prosecuted, as should anybody." regarding a Republican.

You can't because you never did it. When Trump was found with loads of classified stuff in his bathroom, you defended the indefensible. When Trump was shown to have falsified dozens of records for material gain, you defended it. When Trump was caught self dealing from his "charity" you ignored it. When hundreds of January 6th perpetrators were caught on video beating up cops and destroying the Capital building, you defended them.

So you are not fooling anyone but yourself. You are just looking like an idiot.

As for your comment that "libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots." is as dumb as your comments about libs wanting Iran to win, libs wanting illegal immigrants to come over the border to vote, and all of the other silly, nonsense you come up with because you cannot refute their actual arguments.

Stop being a joke. Why be the board clown who everyone laughs at?

Dope1:

Bluster...accusation...bluster...accusation...

None of which addressed the point that I made, which was simply that while I had seen several left-wingers take a stance of "The Epstein files should be released, and let the chips fall where they may with regard to who they may incriminate", I had not seen any of our right-wingers take a similar position.

Instead of offering evidence to the contrary--even when asked for his own opinion on the matter--I got a bunch of accusations and unrelated questions.

Dope1, there is nothing I would rather hear than you simply say "I am in favor of seeing the Epstein files released and let the chips fall where they may, and anyone who did wrong should be prosecuted, regardless of political party". It would make me feel a lot better about our country if we could all get on the same page over something seemingly so simple. But it doesn't seem to on the way. Go ahead, prove me wrong!

None of which addressed the point that I made,

You didn’t make any points. You made a series of derogatory comments followed by some left wing superiority complex stuff. Those aren’t points.

I rarely go off on other posters here. In fact I only do so after allowing the other party to take not only the first punch but the next several ones after that. Other times, I don’t bother to engage at all.

Because…why? Life’s too short to vent bile at random people on the internet.

Any time you feel like you want to have a substantial thread full of competing ideas I’m up for it.

As for your comment that "libs on this board don't really believe that democrats break the law in the first place, which puts this board in all kinds of mental knots." is as dumb as your comments about libs wanting Iran to win, libs wanting illegal immigrants to come over the border to vote, and all of the other silly, nonsense you come up with because you cannot refute their actual arguments.

This is a brain trained on propaganda.

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