Every Thursday morning I summarize the past week's independent expenditures by Lawrence Lessig's quixotic (at best) Mayday PAC, in support of congressional candidates the PAC considers friendly toward campaign finance reform. But it is to be expected that every once in a while a particularly notable Mayday move might warrant a mid-week update, and this is the first such.
Until yesterday, Mayday has spent in only relatively cautious dribs and drabs in its first out-of-state elbowing into its endorsees' campaigns: here $143,000 for radio spots supporting right-wing extremist and anti-DREAMer Jim Rubens' (R; NH-Sen) bid for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire (against Scott Brown [R]), and there $115,000 for online and mail ads supporting Ruben Gallego's (D; AZ-07) own Democratic primary bid (despite Gallego's embarrassing record of support for outlawing public campaign financing...but, hey....). But yesterday, Mayday's sh*t just got real, with a bold $460,000 TV ad buy, once again supporting Jim "Number One: Close the Border" Rubens in New Hampshire.
With its foundational commitment to the principle of bipartisanship semi-partisanship (specifically, the notion that liberal and Democratic donors should fund Republicans' campaigns, because rainbows and unicorns), Mayday was careful to counterbalance this airwave-saturating buy for Rubens in tiny New Hampshire with a symbolic gesture towards Gallego in Phoenix (a piddling $34,000 in additional direct mail ads).
For those of you keeping score, this brings Mayday's total spending, to date, to $150,000 for Democrats (i.e., Gallego) and a whopping $605,000 for Republicans (Rubens). Lessig appears bent on buying himself some Republican love, like Charlie Brown taking yet another run at Lucy's football.
It's a head-scratcher of a move, to say the least. Rubens is running a distant third in the New Hampshire Republican primary race, with his favorables and unfavorables among likely Republican voters at just 10% and 8%, respectively, according to Clarus. Of course, this means that only 18% of likely voters even know who Rubens is or what he stands for against today. So perhaps Mayday's Republican media wizard, Mark "Mission Accomplished" McKinnon, figures that just bumping Rubens into a second-place lose would be a notable victory.
Are we witnessing the birth of Mayday's win-by-backing-losing-losers strategy?
Disgusted donors seeking refunds from Mayday can write them here, or else send 'em a message by tweeting the hashtag #LessigWTF.