As former Florida Governor Jeb Bush struggles to rise in the polls, blame has begun mounting on the spending tactics of the man in charge of Bush super PAC Right to Rise, Mike Murphy.
Of the more than 22 million dollars spent on ads attacking Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] since the start of December, $20 million has come from Right to Rise. The Super PAC has also spent money on iPad-style video mailers and a 47-page magazine sent out to supporters in NH.
No expense spared with the overnight @FedEx delivery of a @JebBush video mailer. iPad mini-esque. #FITN #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/DAfshsXtBg
— Doug Palardy (@djpalardy) January 18, 2016
Bush’s camp is handing out high-quality, 47-pg magazines about his record and policy proposals. Very slick looking. pic.twitter.com/INNNZ94uvD — Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) January 20, 2016
Since September, Bush has not polled above ten percent nationally. And while the campaign has run positive advertisements, they are increasingly turning to negative ones, hitting “establishment” candidates polling above Jeb.
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Of the over $100 million raised, the campaign has spent $58.8 million on ads so far and seems to have no plans to slow down. Right to Rise has reserved an estimated $10.8 million in ads for March campaign states.
This has supporters and members of the campaign questioning Murphy’s “scorched-Earth” tactics. One prominent Bush donor told a Virginia-based newsletter, “It looks like they’re blowing the whole thing up, like even if Jeb can’t win, they’re not going to let anyone else win either.”
Another donor told Politico, “We all wanted it to be Jeb, but if it can’t be Jeb, at some point, doesn’t reality have to set in?”
Murphy is a longtime GOP consultant, who worked on both of Bush’s Florida gubernatorial campaigns and is the founder of DC Navigators. This isn’t the first campaign where Murphy’s spending tactics have received scrutiny.
After running Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful 2003 California gubernatorial run, Murphy worked on business executive Meg Whitman’s failed 2010 run to succeed Schwarzenegger. Whitman ended up spending $144 million of her own money, only to lose by over one million votes.
In the lead-up to the race, Whitman had invested $1 million in Murphy’s production company. Besides being known as the “GOP’s Bill Belichick,” Murphy is involved in show-biz, having written for the first season of “The Dennis Miller Show.”
The reality of Jeb’s prospects is worrying donors about how the man from Hollywood will tarnish Bush’s legacy. One donor said, “they’re hurting the reputation of a really great man.” Even Bush himself seems to be puzzled with the Super PAC’s tactics.
I was w/ Jeb Bush yesterday as he drove past a pro-Bush billboard in Des Moines. “What the hell is that?” he asked. “Is that Right to Rise?”
— Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR) January 13, 2016
The criticism has not only been with the negativity of advertisements, but also the messaging supporting Bush. Much of it concentrates on his time as Florida governor, which has done little to win over support in 2016.
Joe Culotta, a Rubio supporter and former Republican Party of Florida consultant told a Rosslyn-based newsletter, “Don’t get me wrong, I respect Gov. Bush and totally agree that he did great things in Florida. But to voters, that translates to ‘I have a lot of experience in being part of the establishment and the government that you all hate.'”
Right to Rise spokesman Paul Lindsay defended Right to Rise’s tactics saying, “Mike is focused on the same thing everyone in our organization is focused on: supporting Jeb and getting him elected,” He added, “Our metrics for that goal are votes and delegates.”
Certainly if polls were the metrics, the strategy would be shifting.
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