It's gone from annoying, to sad, to pathetic.

[MADem]

165. Look, how can I put this in a way that does not sound dismissive or rude?

There's only so much money to go around.

The money is given to people who the PAC owners think have a real shot, who can WIN. They may not win the first time, but they have a chance.

I don't know your guy, but I suspect he couldn't win. He may have been "polling well" but someone with an eye for these things looked at it and said, "The other guy has ten million, and we don't have ten million to throw at this seat. And if we did, the other guy would raise ANOTHER ten million, and if we don't have ten million in the first place, we sure as hell don't have twenty million. We can take ten million bucks and throw it into twenty other races and get more bang for our buck than trying to shift an entrenched, popular-amongst-his-wingnut-following, senior GOP leader who WILL have every advantage brought to bear if he's even slightly challenged.

You might not like this truth, but that's what it is.

I live in a blue state where there are some districts where they can't even get a Republican to run. It's an exercise in futility. The candidates run unopposed.

Please look at the HILLPAC data I provided, go down all the years and see who HRC gave her dough to--she supported Tammy Baldwin in her unsuccessful run, but she wasn't stupid--she saw that Baldwin had staying power and wasn't going away.

You do what you want with your money. I'm not urging you to give dough to anyone who doesn't meet your standards. I'm simply trying to refute your assertion that no one ever gets any help in these races. They DO get help, if the people running the PACs think they have a hope in hell of winning or making an impact downstream. They don't just hand out money to people who will try like hell and get crushed.

FWIW, they don't jump out and help in primary season. Their MO is to support candidates who are competing in general elections.

Delete those "Gimme Five" emails if you don't like them--they're not targeting you, obviously. But they won't go away...they ARE targeting people who respond viscerally to the issue raised, and whose ire is raised so that they DO give over the five or ten bucks. And everyone who sends in the five bucks is added to a list of potential future donors, of people who can be mobilized over similar issues.

It's how these things are done. Don't shoot the messenger, now--it's just the way it is.

The best way to get a PAC to support a candidate is for the candidate to conduct a grassroots campaign. He or she needs volunteers who go door to door and conduct an "in person" campaign to counter ads. There needs to be a ton of GOTV and huge turnout for the candidate, and then, maybe, next time, they'll back the person. But they don't like going up against million dollar babies--it's just too expensive and the money is better used in competitive venues.