We're getting our first glimpses of life in Super-PACistan, and it's not pretty.
Yesterday, Rick Perry's campaign released a new television ad in which Perry describes himself as a "doer, not a talker" and goes on to talk about Texas' impressive job creation record. This morning, another new ad went up in Iowa and South Carolina, a classic biographical spot introducing Perry as the son of a tenant farmer and husband of a nurse, before going on to talk again about Texas' job creation record. I assumed at first glance that the second ad was a planned follow-up to the first one, so well did they mesh thematically and tonally.
But no. The second ad was created and paid for by Perry's Super-PAC, Make Us Great Again. Under the campaign finance landscape created by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, the Super-PAC can raise unlimited sums from donors, unlike Perry's campaign, which must limit contributions to $2,500. Make Us Great Again has set a fundraising goal of $70 million -- more than quadruple what Perry's campaign has raised so far. The only condition is that the Super-PAC may not coordinate its activities with the campaign. Well. The Super-PAC is being overseen by Perry's longtime friend and former chief of staff Mike Toomey, who just happens to co-own an island in New Hampshire with....Dave Carney, the chief strategist for Perry's campaign. And surely it's because the two men know each other so well that they are able to release ads of such similar thrust just one day apart. Nice work, John Roberts et al.