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'It’s a racket': Failed GOP candidate rages after vendors pocketed millions off sketchy fundraising video
March 02, 2021
On Tuesday, The Washington Post published a damning analysis of how a GOP consulting firm pocketed millions from the campaign of Kim Klacik, a heavily-touted GOP candidate who ran an unsuccessful long-shot bid in a heavily blue district of Baltimore, Maryland last year.
Klacik received national attention and a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention after a viral online ad featuring her walking through run-down neighborhoods of Baltimore and claiming that Democrats had abandoned the city's Black residents. The ad was even touted by former President Donald Trump.
<p>But according to the report, Klacik only learned after the fact that the vendors who helped her create and promote the spot would be taking most of the money she raised off it.</p><p>"The company that produced the video, Arsenal Media Group, would take a cut. And a firm hired to promote the video, Olympic Media, would keep up to 70 percent of the money it generated, some of which was not disclosed in Klacik's initial campaign finance filings," reported Meagan Flynn and Michael Scherer. "Her campaign is an example of how some consulting firms are profiting handsomely from Republican candidates who have robust appeal in today's politically charged environment — even when they are running in deep-blue districts where it is virtually impossible for them to win. The more viral the candidate goes, the more money the companies make — a model possible only through the online outrage machine of hyperpartisan politics."</p><p>Klacik herself was reportedly outraged and felt ripped off. "When I saw it, I almost passed out," she said. "I actually lost sleep over this. These companies — it's a racket. Unfortunately, this is why we ask people to send us checks directly to our P.O. box." Some of her GOP donors are also enraged, with Bruce Dale of Michigan — whose $800 check to her may have gone entirely to vendors — saying, "It sounds like part of the swamp that needs to be drained."</p><p>It is highly unlikely Klacik would have won even if she had been able to keep all the money for campaigning, as the district, represented by Rep. Kweisi Mfume, votes about <a href="https://cookpolitical.com/pvi-map-and-district-list" target="_blank">26 points more Democratic</a> than the nation as a whole.</p>
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) once joked that someone could kill Sen. Ted Cruz (R-X) on the Senate floor and they wouldn't be found guilty even if they were tried by the U.S. Senate, CNN reported at the time.
According to Rolling Stone, Cruz's former college roommate Craig Mazin joked, "One thing Ted Cruz is really good at: uniting people who otherwise disagree about everything else in a total hatred of Ted Cruz."
<p>The latest in a long line of attacks against Cruz from his colleagues comes from former Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). His upcoming autobiography even put the attack in a prominent position at the top of the book jacket. </p><p>"There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless assh*le who thinks he is smarter than everyone else," Boehner said of Cruz, according to Punchbowl's Jake Sherman.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5beac8ceee148489a547fdefa4d61f35" id="d0c66"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1366826873972551683"><div style="margin:1em 0">The back cover of @SpeakerBoehner’s book — from @PunchbowlNews Midday. https://t.co/fZGQ3mCQU6</div> — Jake Sherman (@Jake Sherman)<a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/statuses/1366826873972551683">1614711895.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>After Cruz abandoned his own freezing state to vacation in Cancún, his approval rating dropped to 43 percent with 48 percent disapproval, <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2021/03/01/texas-cruz-cancun-approval-rating/" target="_blank">a Morning Consult poll said</a>. Those numbers are even amid 71 percent approval from Republicans. <br/></p>
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President Joe Biden said Tuesday the United States would have sufficient vaccine supply by the end of May to inoculate the US adult population.
"We're now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May," said Biden, who last month had forecast it would take until the end of July to amass that many doses.
<p>"That's progress. Important progress. But it is not enough to have the vaccine supply," Biden said. "We need vaccinators, people who put the shots in people's arms, millions of Americans' arms."</p><p><em>(AFP)</em></p>
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