2020 US General Election Thread VIII: Cs, Ds, and Es

[Insaanistan]

Perhaps I should have phrased that better. Democrats didn’t want the bill because it did nothing to help the average person.

And the Democrats plan was?

Help way more and give people more than the Republicans wanted to.

[Dresderstan]

And the Democrats plan was?

Help way more and give people more than the Republicans wanted to.

Such as?

[Ifreann]

Perhaps I should have phrased that better. Democrats didn’t want the bill because it did nothing to help the average person.

And the Democrats plan was?

To spend about 7 times more money.

[Gravlen]

Nwm.

[Cannot think of a name]

Perhaps I should have phrased that better. Democrats didn’t want the bill because it did nothing to help the average person.

And the Democrats plan was?

The HEROES Act.

You knew that was a googable thing, right?

[Zurkerx]

Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone? Republican worries rise as Trump Campaign pulls back from television advertising.

Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Trump’s campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president’s senior team.

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president.

Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.

Stepien has told others that cutting the ad budget was necessary because it was impossible to cut other spending, such as staffing or a campaign headquarters. He has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden’s campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will probably be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

Stepien, in a statement to The Post, dismissed complaints about his strategic decisions.

“Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin,” he said. “We’re pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President’s team is similarly confident in our approach this time around.”

Trump campaign officials noted they have a far more robust ground game than Democrats and a candidate who travels far more often and generates far greater media interest, in their view lessening the need for paid advertisements.

Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory.

“There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “Those two places have big Senate races.”

At the heart of the tension in Trump’s orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground vs. spending on television ads and how much money the campaign should expect to raise from donors in the final weeks of the campaign — along with how serious their financial problems could become.

The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, continues to oversee the campaign’s major financial decisions, and has signed off on Stepien’s new approach after previously backing spending sanctioned by his predecessor, Brad Parscale, who was demoted by Trump this summer.

Parscale’s planning had assumed a large influx of smaller, online donations at the end of the campaign, which Stepien is less certain will arrive, say officials familiar with the discussions. In August, Trump raised $210 million, compared with $364.5 million for Biden’s operation.

Parscale, who compared the campaign he built to the “Star Wars” Death Star, has told others the campaign has plenty of money and that he made spending decisions in conjunction with Kushner and the Trump family — and that they needed to spend money early to keep the president in the race. Parscale also argued that it was important to spend money early because so many Americans are voting by mail this year.

A person familiar with senior campaign discussions said the disparity in television spending was the result of different electoral strategies between the two campaigns.

“Our notion here is that we have twice as much television as we had last time, we have more on digital and because of all the money we have spent on data, we believe we will be much more efficient,” the person said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The biggest difference between the Biden campaign and our campaign is we have a super aggressive ground game.”

The Trump campaign has opened more than 280 offices around the country, compared with no dedicated offices for the Biden campaign, though the Biden campaign has been doing similar work virtually.

The president has been annoyed with some of Parscale’s spending but has told other advisers he wants to keep Parscale on the team and doesn’t want him to go “off the reservation,” in the words of one senior campaign adviser.

Republican officials have not said how much money the campaign currently has in the bank, but several said a significant war chest remains.

“We have built the largest field operation in the history of politics during the pandemic. We haven’t had to slow down. That alone speaks to the fact we’re not worried about cash flow at the RNC,” said Richard Walters, chief of staff at the RNC.

But other Trump campaign officials said Stepien has been forced to clean up a disorganized accounting plan left behind by Parscale. They said Stepien did not know where all the money was going, and they had to spend weeks putting together a formalized budget. Stepien told others the campaign had wasted too much money on things that were not central to winning the election.

Stepien, for his part, said he inherited “a strong team.”

“We will have the resources and plan we need to win,” Stepien said.

Trump’s team has been playing defense between mid-August and early September, spending $3.8 million in Georgia and $1.4 million in Iowa, states recently won by Republicans where Democrats spent nothing. Biden, meanwhile, was on the air with $2.7 million in Nevada, which has lately gone to Democrats, without opposition.

Among hotly contested states, Biden spent more than six times as much as Trump in Arizona, and nearly three times as much in North Carolina during the same period, forcing Republican SuperPACs to come in to close the gaps.

The disparity is set to continue going forward, as the Trump campaign has continued to pull down reservations in important states in recent weeks. Reservations reported Wednesday for the week of Sept. 15-21 projected more than $30 million in ads to help Biden, compared with $21 million in ads to help Trump.

Trump continues to outspend Biden online, according to data collected by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic firm, spending $59 million on Facebook and Google between Aug. 8 and Sept. 5, compared with $43.3 million by Biden. But much of the digital spending for both campaigns is aimed at non-swing states like California, New York or Texas, suggesting the ads are focused on fundraising, not persuading voters or driving turnout.

In a statement to The Post, McDaniel offered words of support for Stepien’s oversight of the campaign.

“Bill is doing an excellent job leading the campaign,” she said. “His data-driven approach has put President Trump in a strong position to win.”

Democratic strategists believe that the Trump campaign’s decision to pull television advertising in part reflects a calculation that more of Trump’s voters will turn out on Election Day than Biden voters. Biden’s strategists are more focused on driving early voting among his partisans.

In a conference call last week, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Biden campaign was planning to spend more resources earlier in the fall to encourage a surge of early and mail-in voting, departing from the strategy of a typical campaign which ramps up spending to peak just before Election Day.

“This is an election unlike any other,” she said. “We’ve really frontloaded a lot of our programming so that we are hitting voters now, we are hitting them assuming they are going to be voting early.”

The person familiar with senior-level Trump campaign discussions said the Democratic assumptions were accurate, and that Republicans expect most of their voters will vote later in the cycle.

“Our people overwhelmingly want to vote in person, while you’re going to see a lot of Democrats vote by mail,” said Mike Reed, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Suffice to say, Team Trump royally fucked up with their lavish spending and now have put not only their campaign in jeopardy with tough budget cuts, they also have put low-ranking GOP House Members' seats and key Senate Races in jeopardy too. All that money went into their head and now their resources are close to being diminished.

[San Lumen]

Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone? Republican worries rise as Trump Campaign pulls back from television advertising.

Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Trump’s campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president’s senior team.

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president.

Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.

Stepien has told others that cutting the ad budget was necessary because it was impossible to cut other spending, such as staffing or a campaign headquarters. He has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden’s campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will probably be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

Stepien, in a statement to The Post, dismissed complaints about his strategic decisions.

“Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin,” he said. “We’re pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President’s team is similarly confident in our approach this time around.”

Trump campaign officials noted they have a far more robust ground game than Democrats and a candidate who travels far more often and generates far greater media interest, in their view lessening the need for paid advertisements.

Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory.

“There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “Those two places have big Senate races.”

At the heart of the tension in Trump’s orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground vs. spending on television ads and how much money the campaign should expect to raise from donors in the final weeks of the campaign — along with how serious their financial problems could become.

The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, continues to oversee the campaign’s major financial decisions, and has signed off on Stepien’s new approach after previously backing spending sanctioned by his predecessor, Brad Parscale, who was demoted by Trump this summer.

Parscale’s planning had assumed a large influx of smaller, online donations at the end of the campaign, which Stepien is less certain will arrive, say officials familiar with the discussions. In August, Trump raised $210 million, compared with $364.5 million for Biden’s operation.

Parscale, who compared the campaign he built to the “Star Wars” Death Star, has told others the campaign has plenty of money and that he made spending decisions in conjunction with Kushner and the Trump family — and that they needed to spend money early to keep the president in the race. Parscale also argued that it was important to spend money early because so many Americans are voting by mail this year.

A person familiar with senior campaign discussions said the disparity in television spending was the result of different electoral strategies between the two campaigns.

“Our notion here is that we have twice as much television as we had last time, we have more on digital and because of all the money we have spent on data, we believe we will be much more efficient,” the person said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The biggest difference between the Biden campaign and our campaign is we have a super aggressive ground game.”

The Trump campaign has opened more than 280 offices around the country, compared with no dedicated offices for the Biden campaign, though the Biden campaign has been doing similar work virtually.

The president has been annoyed with some of Parscale’s spending but has told other advisers he wants to keep Parscale on the team and doesn’t want him to go “off the reservation,” in the words of one senior campaign adviser.

Republican officials have not said how much money the campaign currently has in the bank, but several said a significant war chest remains.

“We have built the largest field operation in the history of politics during the pandemic. We haven’t had to slow down. That alone speaks to the fact we’re not worried about cash flow at the RNC,” said Richard Walters, chief of staff at the RNC.

But other Trump campaign officials said Stepien has been forced to clean up a disorganized accounting plan left behind by Parscale. They said Stepien did not know where all the money was going, and they had to spend weeks putting together a formalized budget. Stepien told others the campaign had wasted too much money on things that were not central to winning the election.

Stepien, for his part, said he inherited “a strong team.”

“We will have the resources and plan we need to win,” Stepien said.

Trump’s team has been playing defense between mid-August and early September, spending $3.8 million in Georgia and $1.4 million in Iowa, states recently won by Republicans where Democrats spent nothing. Biden, meanwhile, was on the air with $2.7 million in Nevada, which has lately gone to Democrats, without opposition.

Among hotly contested states, Biden spent more than six times as much as Trump in Arizona, and nearly three times as much in North Carolina during the same period, forcing Republican SuperPACs to come in to close the gaps.

The disparity is set to continue going forward, as the Trump campaign has continued to pull down reservations in important states in recent weeks. Reservations reported Wednesday for the week of Sept. 15-21 projected more than $30 million in ads to help Biden, compared with $21 million in ads to help Trump.

Trump continues to outspend Biden online, according to data collected by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic firm, spending $59 million on Facebook and Google between Aug. 8 and Sept. 5, compared with $43.3 million by Biden. But much of the digital spending for both campaigns is aimed at non-swing states like California, New York or Texas, suggesting the ads are focused on fundraising, not persuading voters or driving turnout.

In a statement to The Post, McDaniel offered words of support for Stepien’s oversight of the campaign.

“Bill is doing an excellent job leading the campaign,” she said. “His data-driven approach has put President Trump in a strong position to win.”

Democratic strategists believe that the Trump campaign’s decision to pull television advertising in part reflects a calculation that more of Trump’s voters will turn out on Election Day than Biden voters. Biden’s strategists are more focused on driving early voting among his partisans.

In a conference call last week, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Biden campaign was planning to spend more resources earlier in the fall to encourage a surge of early and mail-in voting, departing from the strategy of a typical campaign which ramps up spending to peak just before Election Day.

“This is an election unlike any other,” she said. “We’ve really frontloaded a lot of our programming so that we are hitting voters now, we are hitting them assuming they are going to be voting early.”

The person familiar with senior-level Trump campaign discussions said the Democratic assumptions were accurate, and that Republicans expect most of their voters will vote later in the cycle.

“Our people overwhelmingly want to vote in person, while you’re going to see a lot of Democrats vote by mail,” said Mike Reed, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Suffice to say, Team Trump royally fucked up with their lavish spending and now have put not only their campaign in jeopardy with tough budget cuts, they also have put low-ranking GOP House Members' seats and key Senate Races in jeopardy too. All that money went into their head and now their resources are close to being diminished.

That could also have effects for state legislatures too.

[Gravlen]

Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone? Republican worries rise as Trump Campaign pulls back from television advertising.

Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Trump’s campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president’s senior team.

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president.

Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.

Stepien has told others that cutting the ad budget was necessary because it was impossible to cut other spending, such as staffing or a campaign headquarters. He has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden’s campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will probably be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

Stepien, in a statement to The Post, dismissed complaints about his strategic decisions.

“Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin,” he said. “We’re pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President’s team is similarly confident in our approach this time around.”

Trump campaign officials noted they have a far more robust ground game than Democrats and a candidate who travels far more often and generates far greater media interest, in their view lessening the need for paid advertisements.

Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory.

“There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “Those two places have big Senate races.”

At the heart of the tension in Trump’s orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground vs. spending on television ads and how much money the campaign should expect to raise from donors in the final weeks of the campaign — along with how serious their financial problems could become.

The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, continues to oversee the campaign’s major financial decisions, and has signed off on Stepien’s new approach after previously backing spending sanctioned by his predecessor, Brad Parscale, who was demoted by Trump this summer.

Parscale’s planning had assumed a large influx of smaller, online donations at the end of the campaign, which Stepien is less certain will arrive, say officials familiar with the discussions. In August, Trump raised $210 million, compared with $364.5 million for Biden’s operation.

Parscale, who compared the campaign he built to the “Star Wars” Death Star, has told others the campaign has plenty of money and that he made spending decisions in conjunction with Kushner and the Trump family — and that they needed to spend money early to keep the president in the race. Parscale also argued that it was important to spend money early because so many Americans are voting by mail this year.

A person familiar with senior campaign discussions said the disparity in television spending was the result of different electoral strategies between the two campaigns.

“Our notion here is that we have twice as much television as we had last time, we have more on digital and because of all the money we have spent on data, we believe we will be much more efficient,” the person said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The biggest difference between the Biden campaign and our campaign is we have a super aggressive ground game.”

The Trump campaign has opened more than 280 offices around the country, compared with no dedicated offices for the Biden campaign, though the Biden campaign has been doing similar work virtually.

The president has been annoyed with some of Parscale’s spending but has told other advisers he wants to keep Parscale on the team and doesn’t want him to go “off the reservation,” in the words of one senior campaign adviser.

Republican officials have not said how much money the campaign currently has in the bank, but several said a significant war chest remains.

“We have built the largest field operation in the history of politics during the pandemic. We haven’t had to slow down. That alone speaks to the fact we’re not worried about cash flow at the RNC,” said Richard Walters, chief of staff at the RNC.

But other Trump campaign officials said Stepien has been forced to clean up a disorganized accounting plan left behind by Parscale. They said Stepien did not know where all the money was going, and they had to spend weeks putting together a formalized budget. Stepien told others the campaign had wasted too much money on things that were not central to winning the election.

Stepien, for his part, said he inherited “a strong team.”

“We will have the resources and plan we need to win,” Stepien said.

Trump’s team has been playing defense between mid-August and early September, spending $3.8 million in Georgia and $1.4 million in Iowa, states recently won by Republicans where Democrats spent nothing. Biden, meanwhile, was on the air with $2.7 million in Nevada, which has lately gone to Democrats, without opposition.

Among hotly contested states, Biden spent more than six times as much as Trump in Arizona, and nearly three times as much in North Carolina during the same period, forcing Republican SuperPACs to come in to close the gaps.

The disparity is set to continue going forward, as the Trump campaign has continued to pull down reservations in important states in recent weeks. Reservations reported Wednesday for the week of Sept. 15-21 projected more than $30 million in ads to help Biden, compared with $21 million in ads to help Trump.

Trump continues to outspend Biden online, according to data collected by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic firm, spending $59 million on Facebook and Google between Aug. 8 and Sept. 5, compared with $43.3 million by Biden. But much of the digital spending for both campaigns is aimed at non-swing states like California, New York or Texas, suggesting the ads are focused on fundraising, not persuading voters or driving turnout.

In a statement to The Post, McDaniel offered words of support for Stepien’s oversight of the campaign.

“Bill is doing an excellent job leading the campaign,” she said. “His data-driven approach has put President Trump in a strong position to win.”

Democratic strategists believe that the Trump campaign’s decision to pull television advertising in part reflects a calculation that more of Trump’s voters will turn out on Election Day than Biden voters. Biden’s strategists are more focused on driving early voting among his partisans.

In a conference call last week, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Biden campaign was planning to spend more resources earlier in the fall to encourage a surge of early and mail-in voting, departing from the strategy of a typical campaign which ramps up spending to peak just before Election Day.

“This is an election unlike any other,” she said. “We’ve really frontloaded a lot of our programming so that we are hitting voters now, we are hitting them assuming they are going to be voting early.”

The person familiar with senior-level Trump campaign discussions said the Democratic assumptions were accurate, and that Republicans expect most of their voters will vote later in the cycle.

“Our people overwhelmingly want to vote in person, while you’re going to see a lot of Democrats vote by mail,” said Mike Reed, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Suffice to say, Team Trump royally fucked up with their lavish spending and now have put not only their campaign in jeopardy with tough budget cuts, they also have put low-ranking GOP House Members' seats and key Senate Races in jeopardy too. All that money went into their head and now their resources are close to being diminished.

You say went to their heads, but do we know it didn't go into their pockets? A lot of people are getting rich over this, and if I was a donor I'd want someone independent to go over the books.

[Ifreann]

Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone? Republican worries rise as Trump Campaign pulls back from television advertising.

Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Trump’s campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president’s senior team.

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president.

Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.

Stepien has told others that cutting the ad budget was necessary because it was impossible to cut other spending, such as staffing or a campaign headquarters. He has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden’s campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will probably be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

Stepien, in a statement to The Post, dismissed complaints about his strategic decisions.

“Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin,” he said. “We’re pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President’s team is similarly confident in our approach this time around.”

Trump campaign officials noted they have a far more robust ground game than Democrats and a candidate who travels far more often and generates far greater media interest, in their view lessening the need for paid advertisements.

Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory.

“There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “Those two places have big Senate races.”

At the heart of the tension in Trump’s orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground vs. spending on television ads and how much money the campaign should expect to raise from donors in the final weeks of the campaign — along with how serious their financial problems could become.

The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, continues to oversee the campaign’s major financial decisions, and has signed off on Stepien’s new approach after previously backing spending sanctioned by his predecessor, Brad Parscale, who was demoted by Trump this summer.

Parscale’s planning had assumed a large influx of smaller, online donations at the end of the campaign, which Stepien is less certain will arrive, say officials familiar with the discussions. In August, Trump raised $210 million, compared with $364.5 million for Biden’s operation.

Parscale, who compared the campaign he built to the “Star Wars” Death Star, has told others the campaign has plenty of money and that he made spending decisions in conjunction with Kushner and the Trump family — and that they needed to spend money early to keep the president in the race. Parscale also argued that it was important to spend money early because so many Americans are voting by mail this year.

A person familiar with senior campaign discussions said the disparity in television spending was the result of different electoral strategies between the two campaigns.

“Our notion here is that we have twice as much television as we had last time, we have more on digital and because of all the money we have spent on data, we believe we will be much more efficient,” the person said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The biggest difference between the Biden campaign and our campaign is we have a super aggressive ground game.”

The Trump campaign has opened more than 280 offices around the country, compared with no dedicated offices for the Biden campaign, though the Biden campaign has been doing similar work virtually.

The president has been annoyed with some of Parscale’s spending but has told other advisers he wants to keep Parscale on the team and doesn’t want him to go “off the reservation,” in the words of one senior campaign adviser.

Republican officials have not said how much money the campaign currently has in the bank, but several said a significant war chest remains.

“We have built the largest field operation in the history of politics during the pandemic. We haven’t had to slow down. That alone speaks to the fact we’re not worried about cash flow at the RNC,” said Richard Walters, chief of staff at the RNC.

But other Trump campaign officials said Stepien has been forced to clean up a disorganized accounting plan left behind by Parscale. They said Stepien did not know where all the money was going, and they had to spend weeks putting together a formalized budget. Stepien told others the campaign had wasted too much money on things that were not central to winning the election.

Stepien, for his part, said he inherited “a strong team.”

“We will have the resources and plan we need to win,” Stepien said.

Trump’s team has been playing defense between mid-August and early September, spending $3.8 million in Georgia and $1.4 million in Iowa, states recently won by Republicans where Democrats spent nothing. Biden, meanwhile, was on the air with $2.7 million in Nevada, which has lately gone to Democrats, without opposition.

Among hotly contested states, Biden spent more than six times as much as Trump in Arizona, and nearly three times as much in North Carolina during the same period, forcing Republican SuperPACs to come in to close the gaps.

The disparity is set to continue going forward, as the Trump campaign has continued to pull down reservations in important states in recent weeks. Reservations reported Wednesday for the week of Sept. 15-21 projected more than $30 million in ads to help Biden, compared with $21 million in ads to help Trump.

Trump continues to outspend Biden online, according to data collected by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic firm, spending $59 million on Facebook and Google between Aug. 8 and Sept. 5, compared with $43.3 million by Biden. But much of the digital spending for both campaigns is aimed at non-swing states like California, New York or Texas, suggesting the ads are focused on fundraising, not persuading voters or driving turnout.

In a statement to The Post, McDaniel offered words of support for Stepien’s oversight of the campaign.

“Bill is doing an excellent job leading the campaign,” she said. “His data-driven approach has put President Trump in a strong position to win.”

Democratic strategists believe that the Trump campaign’s decision to pull television advertising in part reflects a calculation that more of Trump’s voters will turn out on Election Day than Biden voters. Biden’s strategists are more focused on driving early voting among his partisans.

In a conference call last week, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Biden campaign was planning to spend more resources earlier in the fall to encourage a surge of early and mail-in voting, departing from the strategy of a typical campaign which ramps up spending to peak just before Election Day.

“This is an election unlike any other,” she said. “We’ve really frontloaded a lot of our programming so that we are hitting voters now, we are hitting them assuming they are going to be voting early.”

The person familiar with senior-level Trump campaign discussions said the Democratic assumptions were accurate, and that Republicans expect most of their voters will vote later in the cycle.

“Our people overwhelmingly want to vote in person, while you’re going to see a lot of Democrats vote by mail,” said Mike Reed, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Suffice to say, Team Trump royally fucked up with their lavish spending and now have put not only their campaign in jeopardy with tough budget cuts, they also have put low-ranking GOP House Members' seats and key Senate Races in jeopardy too. All that money went into their head and now their resources are close to being diminished.

You say went to their heads, but do we know it didn't go into their pockets? A lot of people are getting rich over this, and if I was a donor I'd want someone independent to go over the books.

They'll need to wear a yarmulke before Trump will let them near his money.

[Zurkerx]

That could also have effects for state legislatures too.

Right, especially in key States like Texas and North Carolina although those districts are heavily gerrymandered. But it could have devastating consequences.

You say went to their heads, but do we know it didn't go into their pockets? A lot of people are getting rich over this, and if I was a donor I'd want someone independent to go over the books.

Absolutely. Parscale was in charge from the beginning of 2019 to July of this year and was responsible for at least spending $800 million of the Campaign's cash. His mismanagement and lavish spending hurt but it's likely that money went somewhere else too: Trump's Campaign is Auditing its Spending though no results I believe have been announced yet; I wouldn't be surprised if they hid something criminal, however and thus, an outside, independent group is needed. We could be looking at a potential scheme here.

[San Lumen]

That could also have effects for state legislatures too.

Right, especially in key States like Texas and North Carolina although those districts are heavily gerrymandered. But it could have devastating consequences.

You say went to their heads, but do we know it didn't go into their pockets? A lot of people are getting rich over this, and if I was a donor I'd want someone independent to go over the books.

Absolutely. Parscale was in charge from the beginning of 2019 to July of this year and was responsible for at least spending $800 million of the Campaign's cash. His mismanagement and lavish spending hurt but it's likely that money went somewhere else too: Trump's Campaign is Auditing its Spending though no results I believe have been announced yet; I wouldn't be surprised if they hid something criminal, however and thus, an outside, independent group is needed. We could be looking at a potential scheme here.

Gerrymandering can only go so far. They can break. It could have an effect in the Pennsylvania, Michigan legislatures as well as the Minnesota Senate.

[Cannot think of a name]

That could also have effects for state legislatures too.

Right, especially in key States like Texas and North Carolina although those districts are heavily gerrymandered. But it could have devastating consequences.

You say went to their heads, but do we know it didn't go into their pockets? A lot of people are getting rich over this, and if I was a donor I'd want someone independent to go over the books.

Absolutely. Parscale was in charge from the beginning of 2019 to July of this year and was responsible for at least spending $800 million of the Campaign's cash. His mismanagement and lavish spending hurt but it's likely that money went somewhere else too: Trump's Campaign is Auditing its Spending though no results I believe have been announced yet; I wouldn't be surprised if they hid something criminal, however and thus, an outside, independent group is needed. We could be looking at a potential scheme here.

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

[Ifreann]

Right, especially in key States like Texas and North Carolina although those districts are heavily gerrymandered. But it could have devastating consequences.



Absolutely. Parscale was in charge from the beginning of 2019 to July of this year and was responsible for at least spending $800 million of the Campaign's cash. His mismanagement and lavish spending hurt but it's likely that money went somewhere else too: Trump's Campaign is Auditing its Spending though no results I believe have been announced yet; I wouldn't be surprised if they hid something criminal, however and thus, an outside, independent group is needed. We could be looking at a potential scheme here.

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

Maybe you should have drained the swamp, Donald.

[Cannot think of a name]

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

Maybe you should have drained the swamp, Donald.

I really want to make a joke where I work in 'swamp butt' but apparently it's early enough and I'm tired enough that 'swamp butt' by itself is funny and I got nothin'. Pretty disappointed in myself. I'll go sit in the corner now.

[Zurkerx]

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

I believe we call this irony(?) but it would surely suck in Trump's world if that's the case though I don't think that will happen, at least, not with the current evidence we're seeing right now.

Gerrymandering can only go so far. They can break. It could have an effect in the Pennsylvania, Michigan legislatures as well as the Minnesota Senate.

True though how partisan the maps are I fully don't know. But Democrats have another advantage currently going for them: they have built a big edge in early voting and even more concerning for Republicans is that Democrats who didn't vote in 2016 are requesting 2020 ballots at higher rates than their GOP counterparts:

In PA and NC, Democrat have a roughly three-to-one advantage over Republicans in absentee ballot requests. In particular, in PA, 175,000 Democratic voters that didn't vote the last time have requested an absentee ballot, more than double than what Republicans have. And in Florida, they have a 700,000 lead over the GOP; other States they lead in include Ohio, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

[Glorious Hong Kong]

That is an extremely dishonest take, and you probably know it but you post it anyways…

Trump supporters have been demonized as all being racists, but in reality, barely anyone is racist. I have been to many Trump rallies, no one cared that I was Chinese, in fact, people praised me for resisting the CCP, and wished me luck on "liberating my ancestral land."

When I pass through rural America while going places, people are very friendly and are more curious than anything, when I tell them I’m a Trump supporter, they go as far as inviting me over for dinner. The only experience with racism I have had in the US has been in urban Philadelphia, where two black men called me a "Fucking chinky pig," while I was crossing the street and their car had to stop.
(and before you leftists jump on the opportunity to paint me as a black-hating racist, I know these people are not representative of the vast majority of black people)

Portraying all or even most Trump supporters as racist is another one of the left’s most effective tactic, lying.

Thank you for volunteering as a social guinea pig. Turns out my hunch was correct then. Trump supporters have been unfairly slandered and smeared as racists for years. MSM has a lot to answer for. When I was in the UK, I experienced precisely two instances of racism over a six year period, one from a middle-aged white guy on a bus and the second from a group of black youths across the street. The second one actually made me fear for my safety. So let's not demonize all white people or all black people as racists. Anyone of any race can be a racist prick.

Trump supporters have been demonized as all being racists, but in reality, barely anyone is racist. I have been to many Trump rallies, no one cared that I was Chinese, in fact, people praised me for resisting the CCP, and wished me luck on "liberating my ancestral land."

When I pass through rural America while going places, people are very friendly and are more curious than anything, when I tell them I’m a Trump supporter, they go as far as inviting me over for dinner. The only experience with racism I have had in the US has been in urban Philadelphia, where two black men called me a "Fucking chinky pig," while I was crossing the street and their car had to stop.
(and before you leftists jump on the opportunity to paint me as a black-hating racist, I know these people are not representative of the vast majority of black people)

Portraying all or even most Trump supporters as racist is another one of the left’s most effective tactic, lying.

I disagree that all Trump supporters are racist, but I'm gonna have to say you're full of it at several of your quotes, from "liberating my ancestral land" to "Fucking chinky pig." I'm sorry mate, but all of that sounds completely made up.

"He's so right-wing, he couldn't possibly be Chinese! He must be lying!"

While not all Trump supporters are racist, just ask yourselves, who do the racists by and large support?

Joe Biden and the Democrats.

I disagree that all Trump supporters are racist, but I'm gonna have to say you're full of it at several of your quotes, from "liberating my ancestral land" to "Fucking chinky pig." I'm sorry mate, but all of that sounds completely made up.

Why? Do you have a view that all Trump supporters are unsophisticated rednecks or something?

That actually is a racist impression that many leftists ironically have. Although I will grant that many of them hold dodgy views on the pandemic and many of them refuse to mask up and social distance. That's one other thing I missed out that I strongly disagree with conservatives over. I wouldn't go anywhere near a Trump rally not because they're supposedly racist, but because large crowds are extremely dangerous to be in at the moment. Even then, not all Trump supporters are like that from what I've seen in the media. Some of them do wear masks and social distance. Even Trump himself has worn a mask on occasion.

[San Lumen]

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

I believe we call this irony(?) but it would surely suck in Trump's world if that's the case though I don't think that will happen, at least, not with the current evidence we're seeing right now.

Gerrymandering can only go so far. They can break. It could have an effect in the Pennsylvania, Michigan legislatures as well as the Minnesota Senate.

True though how partisan the maps are I fully don't know. But Democrats have another advantage currently going for them: they have built a big edge in early voting and even more concerning for Republicans is that Democrats who didn't vote in 2016 are requesting 2020 ballots at higher rates than their GOP counterparts:

In PA and NC, Democrat have a roughly three-to-one advantage over Republicans in absentee ballot requests. In particular, in PA, 175,000 Democratic voters that didn't vote the last time have requested an absentee ballot, more than double than what Republicans have. And in Florida, they have a 700,000 lead over the GOP; other States they lead in include Ohio, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

Minnesota is a relatively fair map. The other two are doable in a big enough wave. Democrats won the popular vote for both chambers in 2018.

[Kowani]

While not all Trump supporters are racist, just ask yourselves, who do the racists by and large support?

Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Yeah, this is false.

[Vassenor]

While not all Trump supporters are racist, just ask yourselves, who do the racists by and large support?

Joe Biden and the Democrats.

OK, if that's the case you won't mind proving it.

Or is this going to turn into another "BLM Are the Real Racists because facts and reasons and logic"?

[Juristonia]

At this point it's almost Occum's Razor that at least a few people were lining their pockets with this shit.

Oh the delight if people robbing the campaign is part of what brings down Trump, getting taken down by his own rot is almost too perfect.

Maybe you should have drained the swamp, Donald.

He did.
He just replaced it with sewage.

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5 ... a-district

This is probably one of the only seats Republicans will gain this year. Minnesota's seventh district the incumbent is Collin Peterson chair of the agriculture committee. Michelle Fischbach former Lt. Governor will be the likely victor.

[Jerzylvania]

Maybe you should have drained the swamp, Donald.

He did.
He just replaced it with sewage.

Easy to accomplish for Trump as his mouth is the biological equivalent of a continuously overflowing toilet.

[Major-Tom]

Trump supporters have been demonized as all being racists, but in reality, barely anyone is racist. I have been to many Trump rallies, no one cared that I was Chinese, in fact, people praised me for resisting the CCP, and wished me luck on "liberating my ancestral land."

When I pass through rural America while going places, people are very friendly and are more curious than anything, when I tell them I’m a Trump supporter, they go as far as inviting me over for dinner. The only experience with racism I have had in the US has been in urban Philadelphia, where two black men called me a "Fucking chinky pig," while I was crossing the street and their car had to stop.
(and before you leftists jump on the opportunity to paint me as a black-hating racist, I know these people are not representative of the vast majority of black people)

Portraying all or even most Trump supporters as racist is another one of the left’s most effective tactic, lying.

Thank you for volunteering as a social guinea pig. Turns out my hunch was correct then. Trump supporters have been unfairly slandered and smeared as racists for years. MSM has a lot to answer for. When I was in the UK, I experienced precisely two instances of racism over a six year period, one from a middle-aged white guy on a bus and the second from a group of black youths across the street. The second one actually made me fear for my safety. So let's not demonize all white people or all black people as racists. Anyone of any race can be a racist prick.

I disagree that all Trump supporters are racist, but I'm gonna have to say you're full of it at several of your quotes, from "liberating my ancestral land" to "Fucking chinky pig." I'm sorry mate, but all of that sounds completely made up.

"He's so right-wing, he couldn't possibly be Chinese! He must be lying!"

While not all Trump supporters are racist, just ask yourselves, who do the racists by and large support?

Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Why? Do you have a view that all Trump supporters are unsophisticated rednecks or something?

That actually is a racist impression that many leftists ironically have. Although I will grant that many of them hold dodgy views on the pandemic and many of them refuse to mask up and social distance. That's one other thing I missed out that I strongly disagree with conservatives over. I wouldn't go anywhere near a Trump rally not because they're supposedly racist, but because large crowds are extremely dangerous to be in at the moment. Even then, not all Trump supporters are like that from what I've seen in the media. Some of them do wear masks and social distance. Even Trump himself has worn a mask on occasion.

So, the people shouting white power, they're voting Biden? The people who committed atrocities in El Paso, in Pittsburgh, they were card-carrying Dems? Really, mate? You're smarter than that, I'd invite you to come to the US and see for yourself the reality of our situation, but we're so far gone thanks to the administration that you can't.

As for my response to the other guy, I know a plethora of right-wing people of Asian descent. I just seriously doubted the wording he was presenting, due to how far-fetched it sounded. I conceded I might have been wrong, was just voicing my skepticism.

[Greater Miami Shores]

He did.
He just replaced it with sewage.

Easy to accomplish for Trump as his mouth is the biological equivalent of a continuously overflowing toilet.

And you are not biased?

[Vassenor]

Easy to accomplish for Trump as his mouth is the biological equivalent of a continuously overflowing toilet.

And you are not biased?

Remember, any criticism of Trump is proof of bias.