Time to ditch Mitch
A few days back it was reported that a GOP super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) would withdraw a significant $5.6 million reserved for TV ads from New Hampshire’s Senate race.
A spokesperson for the PAC claimed they “are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal: winning the majority”
That follows a similar move made by the Senate Republicans’ campaign earlier this month to pull its resources from New Hampshire, claiming it was because of other Republican spending going toward the race.
Recent polls show both candidates in New Hampshire, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and her Republican challenger Don Bolduc, evenly poised in the contest. Despite Hassan outspending Bolduc by a whopping $9 million during the third quarter.
Previously, Hassan had a lead of a wider margin of at least 7 percentage points over Bolduc. That was the phase when pollsters are not reflecting but influencing the minds of voters. But now that the election date is a few weeks away the same polling firms, in order to retain some credibility are being factual.
Bolduc, a retired Army general, won the Republican nomination last month over the establishment favorite and state Senate President Chuck Morse, after being endorsed by President Trump.
So is this $5.6 withdrawal important?
Big spending doesn’t always lead to big victories.
If that were the case, Jeb Bush, who spent around $130 million on his primary campaign, would have been the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016 while Mike Bloomberg, who spent $900 million on his campaign, would have been the Democrat Presidential nominee in 2020.
However, for newer candidates with lesser name recognition, funding is critical.
Hassan could fund attack adverts against Bolduc and if Bolduc is unable to respond, it could convince a small but important section of low-information voters to choose Hassan. Quite often elections are decided by a small section of voters.
It is hence quite unpardonable for McConnell to withdraw funds at such a crucial juncture.
Where is McConnell spending his funds?
Why of course in Alaska on Sen. Lisa Murkowski who running against Trump-endorsed GOP challenger Kelly Tshibaka.
McConnell's PAC is spending about $9 million on Murkowski.
Murkowski voted to impeach Trump in the Senate and voted 66.7% with Biden, a high number for a Republican. She voted to send billions of tax dollars in aid to Ukraine and myriad other Democrat-backed bills. She also voted to approve most nominations of Biden’s cabinet members and even his Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
Murkowski recently revealed that she will vote for Democrat House candidate Rep. Mary Peltola over GOP challenger former Gov. Sarah Palin during the midterms.
NEWS: @lisamurkowski says she is going to pick @MaryPeltola as her first choice on her ballot.
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) October 22, 2022
“Yeah I am,” she says when asked by @ZachHughesNews pic.twitter.com/38iv421W0Z
Breitbart reported on Thursday that seven Alaska Republican committees issued a scathing rebuke of McConnell’s financial influence behind 21-year incumbent Murkowski.
This isn’t the only game that McConnell is playing.
In August, McConnell’s PAC reduced its advertising budget for the Senate candidate Blake Masters in Arizona by around $8 million
Masters won the Republican nomination against a wide field of candidates after being endorsed by President Trump
Beyond Masters, Senate Republican nominees such as J.D. Vance (Ohio), Mehmet Oz (Pennsylvania), Adam Laxalt (Nevada), and Herschel Walker (Georgia), all endorsed by President Trump during the GOP primaries, also haven't received much financial support from McConnell. Despite that, these GOP Senate candidates are engaged in close contests against their respective Democrat rivals.
Hence all donors aspiring to help the MAGA movement, must surgically donate to specific Senate campaigns rather than just the GOP.
Back to Mitch.
In August, McConnell went as far as to question the caliber of some of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate. He even cast doubts on the GOP prospects of winning the Senate claiming that “there's probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate."
McConnell is an old fox who realizes that if the GOP does win a majority in the Senate, the MAGA wing will attempt to force him out of his leadership position. Hence, he needs Murkowski and the rest of the Never Trumpers to back him.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0 license
However, if the GOP were to not secure a majority in the Senate and even lose a few seats, he is likely to retain his status as Senate Minority Leader. A GOP defeat would also enable him to claim that MAGA has been rejected by the public and it is time to return to ‘normalcy,’ i.e. placing the needs of the Democrat D.C. establishment before that of the public.
For the likes of McConnell working for a Democrat such as Biden is preferable to a Republican such as Donald Trump.
His voting record shows he sided with Biden’s agenda via his vote in the Senate by around 54.5% of the time.
McConnell reportedly told Biden that he wanted to blunt President Trump's influence by conveying to allies in Eastern Europe that "Republicans believe NATO is important" and to "push back against the isolationist sentiment in my own party."
McConnell branded his fellow Kentuckian GOP Senator Rand Paul, who merely wanted to add essential transparency and accountability measures to the funds being dispatched to Ukraine, as an isolationist.
The US has approved over $60 billion of taxpayer funds to Ukraine since Russia's intervention began in February.
McConnell emerged as the staunchest Republican advocate for sending billions to Ukraine via his words, votes in the Senate, and actions. He recently urged Biden to deliver more military support to Ukraine. Such is McConnel’s enthusiasm that he traveled to Ukraine in May along with a delegation of GOP senators to meet and greet Premier Zelensky. Seldom has Mitch visited any place within the US to meet citizens who are suffering due to Biden’s misgovernance.
McConnell also voted for a "gun safety" bill that empowers a judge to order the seizure of firearms merely based on someone's suspicion.
McConnell hasn’t spoken against the Stalinist January 6 Select Committee that intends to criminalize political opposition by pushing the spurious narrative that MAGA Republicans are violent extremists.
There’s more!
The family of McConnell's wife Elaine Chao has extensive business interests in China and close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its allies.
When Chao was the secretary of transportation under President Trump, she allegedly used her office to promote her family's shipping business, and even tried to include family members in high-level meetings with top Chinese officials.
Politico reported that Chao had, “designated a special liaison to help with grant applications and other priorities from her husband Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky, paving the way for grants totaling at least $78 million for favored projects as McConnell prepared to campaign for reelection.”
If MAGA Republicans win during the midterms, they could pass laws that could place restrictions that could topple the gravy train for McConnell.
Mitch’s opposition to the MAGA movement is hence dictated by personal and pecuniary interests in addition to the usual urge politicians have to hold on to power
It is essential that the GOP unseats McConnell from his leadership position which will be a major step in dismantling the self-serving, self-promoting, self-preserving, corrupt, and nepotistic confederacy that is D.C. Democrat Establishment.