REPORTS: Senate Republicans’ “Cash Haul Vanished” & “McConnell’s Woes Pile Up”

NYT: How a Record Cash Haul Vanished for Senate Republicans
NYT: With Midterms Looming, McConnell’s Woes Pile Up

Over the weekend, two new major stories from The New York Times detailed how Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are “entering an autumn of discontent” as “tensions are high”:

• The Times took alook under the hood of the NRSC’s floundering fundraising and revealed that “a full-blown case of finger-pointing has erupted across Washington, with Rick Scott a prime target” as “top Republicans are beginning to ask: Where did all the money go?”;

• The Times also reported that “McConnell’s woes pile up” as “his party’s crop of candidate recruits has struggled to gain traction,” he “has drawn criticism from within his own ranks” as Senate Democrats deliver legislative wins, and even GOP senators acknowledge “there’s been tension” between him and Scott.

See for yourself:

The New York Times: How a Record Cash Haul Vanished for Senate Republicans
By Shane Goldmacher
September 3, 2022

• Mr. Scott installed a new digital team, spearheaded by Trump veterans, and greenlit an enormous wave of spending on digital ads, not to promote candidates but to discover more small contributors… A year later, some of that braggadocio has vanished — along with most of the money.

• By the end of July, the committee had… already spent more than 95 percent of what it had brought in. The Republican group entered August with just $23.2 million on hand, less than half of what the Senate Democratic committee had ahead of the final intense phase of the midterm elections.

• Now top Republicans are beginning to ask: Where did all the money go?

• The answer, chiefly, is that Mr. Scott’s enormous gamble on finding new online donors has been a costly financial flop in 2022, according to a New York Times analysis of federal records and interviews with people briefed on the committee’s finances. Today, the N.R.S.C. is raising less than before Mr. Scott’s digital splurge.

• Party leaders, including Senator Mitch McConnell, are fretting aloud… with money one factor as some first-time candidates have struggled to gain traction. The N.R.S.C. was intended to be a party bulwark yet found itself recently canceling some TV ad reservations in key states.

• One internal N.R.S.C. budget document from earlier this year, obtained by The Times, shows that $23.3 million was poured into investments to find new donors between June 2021 and January 2022. In that time, the contributors the organization found gave $6.1 million — a more than $17 million deficit.

• A full-blown case of finger-pointing has erupted across Washington, with Mr. Scott a prime target. His handling of the committee’s finances has become conflated with other critiques, especially a flawed field of Republicans who have found themselves outspent on television.

• Mr. Scott’s detractors accuse him of transforming the N.R.S.C. into the “National Rick Scott Committee” — and a vehicle for his presidential ambitions.

• Tensions are high. Mr. Vance recently snapped at Mr. Scott over a different issue with committee staff in a phone call, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation.

• Mr. Scott also rolled out his own “Rescue America” agenda… Mr. Scott’s initial openness to taxing more Americans and letting Social Security expire has been used repeatedly… to bludgeon Republicans.

• Mr. Scott’s sharp elbows have earned him enemies. His family vacation on a yacht outside Italy, for instance, promptly leaked. Just after Labor Day, Mr. Scott has another trip planned. It is not to a key Senate battleground. He is headed to Iowa.

The New York Times: With Midterms Looming, McConnell’s Woes Pile Up
By Annie Karni
September 2, 2022

• Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, spent the summer watching Democrats score a series of legislative victories of the sort he once swore he would thwart.

• His party’s crop of candidate recruits has struggled to gain traction.

• And this week, his dispute with the leader of the Republicans’ Senate campaign arm escalated into a public war.

• As the Senate prepares to return to Washington… for a final stint before the midterm congressional elections, Mr. McConnell is entering an autumn of discontent.

• The man known best for his ability to block and kill legislation — he once proclaimed himself the “grim reaper” — has felt the political ground shift under his feet. Democrats have, in the space of a few months, managed to pass a gun safety compromise, a major technology and manufacturing bill, a huge veterans health measure, and a climate, health and tax package.

• McConnell has had a nasty break with Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the party campaign committee, who has styled himself in Mr. Trump’s image, recruited candidates loyal to the former president, visited him regularly in Florida and New Jersey, and this week attacked Mr. McConnell.

• At the same time, Mr. McConnell… has drawn criticism from within his own ranks.

• The bad blood has only served to underscore the party’s waning hopes of winning a Senate majority.

• “I’m sitting at the leadership table with both of them every Monday night — there’s been tension,” Ms. Capito said. “Obviously there are some deep-seated bad feelings, and that’s very unfortunate.”

###