Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
As Joe Biden took it on the chin at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate over his past opposition to school busing, the conservatives at the Club for Growth were taking a victory lap.
The Club’s political arm had dropped $7,000 on a one-minute television ad that aired in the Des Moines, Iowa, media market during the debate, hitting Biden on the precise issue for which he was being taken to task on-air by California Sen. Kamala Harris. “Joe Biden’s done some dumb things over the years,” the ad says, citing the time he “sided with racist Dixiecrats against measures to desegregate schools.”
“Kamala’s moment of the night made most of the exact same point made in our ad,” a Club spokesman gloated when the debate wrapped up.
It was a win for the group, and an illustration of how ideological groups attempt to capitalize on high-profile political events put on by their opponents, whether to try to inject their own issues into the conversation, or, as in the Club’s case, amplify a damaging line of attack.
The Club was one of at least four conservative groups running ads during debate coverage on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The largest buy came from March for Life Action. The anti-abortion group says it dropped six figures on its ad, which aired nationally right before Wednesday’s debate.
The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, also took out a two-week national ad buy, beginning during the debates and demanding Biden release a list of his potential Supreme Court picks, though it’s not clear whether a list even exists yet.
Meanwhile, the Job Creators Network, a right-leaning business group, aired an ad attacking a handful of Democrats over their embrace of “democratic socialism.” The English version of that ad aired on MSNBC in Washington, D.C., while a Spanish version went up on Telemundo in Miami.
“Using the airwaves and technology to bracket the Democratic debates, it’s not a new concept,” a Republican operative involved in Judicial Crisis Network ad strategy told PAY DIRT. “But I think we’re going to have a pretty energetic campaign on the issues. What these ads indicate is that both sides are readying for battle.”
“We want to encourage a debate on those issues, to lure Democratic candidates into a debate,” the operative said of the Supreme Court and abortion issues in particular.
Just as effective, though, can be the wedge strategy that the Club employed Thursday. “Our research has shown that [Biden] is vulnerable on certain key issues, including slavery reparations, segregation, and school busing, and the ad is significantly increasing attention on those vulnerabilities,” David McIntosh, the group’s president, told PAY DIRT.
It didn’t hurt that Biden responded to the Club’s ad before he ever even went on stage.
Get the data:
