'We're going to be a force in this battle': Biden super PAC kicks into gear

[highplainsdem]

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/06/joe-biden-super-pac-iowa-066957

A newly formed super PAC supporting Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign is moving quickly to boost the former vice president, amassing “significant commitments” from donors and aiming to have ads up in Iowa before Thanksgiving.

Unite the Country, which just filed paperwork last week, is now embarking on the research phase, with plans to quickly start up focus groups in Iowa to develop messaging for a digital and TV ad buy.

“I have to say, it’s been impressive to me, just the volume of incoming a calls we’ve taken in five days from people who want to support the effort,” Larry Rasky, the group’s treasurer, told POLITICO on Wednesday. “I don’t think it is raising our expectations too much to say we’re going to be a force in this battle.”

The group’s effort comes amid an anti-Biden assault by President Donald Trump in Iowa and other early states, as well as declining poll numbers for Biden in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Three recent polls, including one from Quinnipac on Wednesday, showed Biden in fourth place in Iowa, leapfrogged by an ascendant Pete Buttigieg and also led by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

The Biden super PAC hopes to launch TV ads in the next several weeks, and digital ads could come sooner — once Google, Facebook and Twitter approve the new committee. That effort is separate from a $4 million digital and TV buy Biden’s campaign recently announced in Iowa.

Rasky said the super PAC’s messaging will not “punch down” an does not plan to attack Biden’s primary opponents, instead starting by tracking Iowans’ views of Biden today and determining the extent of the damage caused by Trump’s anti-Biden ads. Trump has aired nearly $500,000 worth of ads in Iowa alone, some of which directly target Biden on his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.

“That is much of the impetus behind the super PAC than anything,” Rasky said. “That’s going to continue and we have to push back on that. If I dump a million dollars on your head — it’s going to hurt.”

“It’ll become obvious that Joe Biden is the only Democrat in the field that has those cards to play,” Rasky said. “I don’t think you punch down in this context, that’s not what we’re there to do.”

-snip-

[Thekaspervote]

1. Dotard... meet the formable force that's going to throw you and your squatting ilk out!!

[redstateblues]

2. Go Joe! We need you now more than ever

[Sloumeau]

3. highplainsdem, thanks for posting this. :)

Go, Go Joe Superpac!

[Demsrule86]

4. Go Biden!!! With all that Trump has thrown at him Biden still leads...he is a candidate who can

withstand the GOP shit and win 2020.

[peggysue2]

5. Will this quiet the Super Pac howl that this is designed to disparage Democratic competitors?

Probably not but the reasoning is sound: Trump is under no restrictions on running anti-Biden digital and TV ads smearing Biden and his family. We know now that the Trumpsters have spent $500,000 in Iowa alone, some of which have spread the Hunter Biden conspiracy.

Biden is playing a different hand from the rest of the field, fighting two contests simultaneously. This was a smart, necessary move by the Biden campaign.

Thanks for the update, highplainsdem

[highplainsdem]

6. It should, since the super PAC is not going to punch down and go after Biden's primary opponents.

This is a response to Trump, who's already running what looks like a GE campaign against Biden.

[Fiendish Thingy]

9. I'm more concerned about the hidden donors Biden may be indebted to

Big Donors can hide their identities by "filtering" donations through Dark Money 501(c) organizations, which then donate to the Super PAC, leaving the original donors untraceable.

[peggysue2]

13. You do realize that any of our candidates once nominated . . .

will use Super Pacs to level the playing field. To do otherwise is to be blown out by Trump and his big money enablers. I agree that something needs to be done about Dark Money. However, the principled stand on this issue during a presidential election will lead to one thing only: Defeat.

We need to win first to change anything including election financing.

[Demsrule86]

14. Any nominee will use super pacs...and Biden never did anything for anyone which is why he was the

poorest Senator...good luck with that false meme. There is nothing that can be done about issues with campaign finance unless we win...until then we need cash to beat the GOP who will only make the situation worse.

[LeftTurn3623]

7. Glad to see he is getting some help

I have found it so strange that his poll numbers have been so good but the money hasnt been there. While I have Joe around 4th on my choice in the primary, I do like him and I also do think he has the easiest road to beating Trump.

[highplainsdem]

8. As for why Biden hasn't raised as much money as a few of his rivals, I think there are 4 factors:

1) Some polls have indicated his supporters aren't as affluent as the supporters of some of the other candidates.

2) He's so well known -- and has been the frontrunner for so long -- that it's possible many of his supporters believed he'd easily raise enough money without needing any small contribution they could make. His very successful fundraising between late April and June 30 probably added to that impression.

3) Unlike Sanders and Warren, he isn't offeriing anything like forgiveness of student debt that would be a huge economic boon for some of their supporters.

4) He got started late with fundraising and didn't have the organization/experience with fundraising, especially online, that Sanders had.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. You forgot one:

5) Biden just doesn't generate as much enthusiasm among small donors as the other candidates.

[highplainsdem]

11. IMO it isn't a true lack of enthusiasm so much as it is familiarity. New faces tend to generate

more excitement, more of a rush.

But there have been enough polls suggesting Biden's supporters are more committed to him than other candidates' supporters are to them to show that the support for him is just as strong.

[Thekaspervote]

12. That just isn't so.you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Biden and Yang have best net + support

A new Business Insider report reveals that when looking at three of the publication’s polls from September 25 to October 17th, Andrew Yang and Joe Biden have the most net positive support among undecided voters. 42% say they would vote for Biden!



Which candidate do you think can best handle health care? One of the single most important issues on the voter’s agenda

Biden 31%
Sanders 28%
Warren 17%
Harris 4%
Buttigieg 3%
Klobuchar 3%
O'Rourke 1%
Yang 1%
Booker 1%
Gabbard 1%

@CNN, Democrats/leaners, 10/17-20
cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/image…o

[Demsrule86]

16. Did you see this?

https://apnews.com/db01cb07afed4f82831c04127542c019

"Joe Biden raised $5.3 million through a surge of online contributions in October that rolled in after President Donald Trump launched unfounded attacks against the former vice president over his son’s Ukrainian dealings.

The swell of cash came from 182,000 donations, with $28 being the average amount given, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by the campaign, which did not include money that Biden raised through big-dollar fundraisers. It comes after his internet fundraising operation stumbled over the summer, leading critics to suggest he lacked grassroots support.

“All of the Trump attacks have started to catalyze. More people understand what is at stake,” deputy campaign manager Pete Kavanaugh said in an interview. “People out there are seeing Joe Biden getting attacked day after day. They understand he needs to fight back.”

[Demsrule86]

15. He also didn't have millions from Senate campaigns to put in the kitty...he has actually outraised

some. And now he will get the funds he needs as he is clearly the front runner and will beat Trump.

[Thekaspervote]

20. Indeed.. so we can leave the nay sayers to work out the math

[Cha]

17. Unite the Country! A lofty goal but not

impossible with a Democratic President. It will be much more of an United States of America with someone pulling for America instead of Russia.

[NYMinute]

18. Go Joe!!! K&R

[Cha]

19. "I am not angry at joe.... Others need to do the same.."

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

21. Great tweet, Cha! Thanks!