As a former RNC chairman and longtime GOP strategist, Ed Gillespie is no stranger to the art of pulling the plug on failing campaigns. I'm sure he's done it dozens, nay, hundreds of times in his career. But this time he's done it to a very unique target...his own:
Virginia Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Ed Gillespie has decided to abandon television ads in the last three weeks before the 2014 midterm election day
Now, despite his establishment pedigree and some GOP hopes, Gillespie has never proven much of a threat to Mark Warner, easily the most popular politician in the state. But this is still a rather unexpectedly move, especially since he isn't exactly lacking for cash:
Republican Ed Gillespie raised $1.8 million for his Senate campaign between July and September, keeping him competitive with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) who raised $2 million in the same time period.
Gillespie also loaned his campaign $65,000, bringing his total receipts for the third quarter to $1.87 million
(Warner, however,
maintains a large cash advantage)
More on this from Tiger Beat on the Potomac:
Gillespie’s last commercial appears to have aired on Monday, and former Republican National Committee chairman had not placed any reservations for the next three weeks as of Thursday morning.
Not a promising sign. And if he's expecting outside groups to pick up the slack, this isn't either:
A super PAC focused on helping Gillespie, called We Can Do Better PAC, just reported that it raised no money in the third quarter and has $124,000 cash on hand.
Yeah, I'm not feeling the GOP-mentum here, people.
One must give Ed Gillespie this. He isn't showing any more mercy to himself then he did to anyone else's campaign.