NRSC Response #2 to Christine O'Donnell and Jeffrey Lord - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
NRSC Response #2 to Christine O’Donnell and Jeffrey Lord
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Note to Spectator Readers: The NSRC Response on Christine O’Donnell — Part 2. We begin with my verbatim answer to Mr. Walsh’s first response. Followed by Walsh’s official NSRC response # 2. Again, we publish verbatim as promised to the NRSC.

FROM JEFFREY LORD TO NSRC SPOKESMAN BRIAN WALSH:

Brian…

Thanks for the note.

Christine O’Donnell herself said this on-air on Sean Hannity’s radio show this afternoon. She also said it to James Rosen on a Fox camera. Have you asked for time from Hannity for Senator Cornyn to discuss and respond? I’m more than happy to post your answers and/or those of Senator Cornyn for Spectator readers. Tonight ASAP. I’m also happy to alert Spectator readers the Senator is willing to answer Christine on Hannity’s show. 

No, I have not seen the item from the Post but I will absolutely post it with a link.

I note that Christine O’Donnell’s name is not mentioned. Are you saying that you will continue to oppose Ms. O’Donnell behind the scenes by cutting off NRSC resources? What you seem not to realize is that this is a very, very old game being played with Ms. O’Donnell. And lots of people understand the game. For the record: Can you please tell me the NRSC spending on the campaigns of other GOP candidates versus O’Donnell? How about Joe Miller v. O’Donnell spending? Ken Buck spending v. O’Donnell. Pat Toomey is ahead by double digits…and a robo-call just came into my home for Toomey. Is O’Donnell getting this kind of help? What about NRSC spending on other GOP nominees versus O’Donnell? The Senate GOP Caucus, the parent of the NRSC, refused to strip Lisa Murkowski of her committee assignments after she not only lost a GOP primary but is actively opposing Joe Miller? Is the NRSC taking any action against GOP Senators who are effectively supporting a candidate opposing the GOP Senate nominee as duly chosen by the voters of Alaska?

Again. I will be happy to post your response verbatim. I will be happy to post any statement from Senator Cornyn verbatim. I’m sure Sean Hannity would be interested in talking to Senator Cornyn about this. There are millions of people out there paying attention to what’s going on in these Senate races, and that certainly includes American Spectator readers.

Please feel free.

Thanks,
Jeff Lord

Note to Spectator Readers: This is the second response from NRSC Chairman John Cornyn’s spokesman Brian Walsh. As promised, his response is published verbatim, below.

Hi Jeff — appreciate the note. In fact, Senator Cornyn was on Sean Hannity’s show the day after the Delaware primary, talking specifically about that race and expressing his strong support for Christine O’Donnell. I’m sorry you missed the interview. 

But since that time, Senator Cornyn has met with Christine personally, the NRSC has given her campaign a check for $42,000 which is the maximum direct contribution, the NRSC has spoken on a daily basis with her campaign, the NRSC has paid for an extensive poll in her race and in fact, despite the reality that there are currently at least 18 other Senate races that are closer in the polls than Delaware with just three weeks to go, the NRSC’s Political Director was on the ground in Delaware this past week meeting with the O’Donnell campaign. The chief topic of that day-long meeting was to discuss how best to spend the millions of dollars she has raised in recent weeks.

So I ask you — does any of that sound like the actions of a Committee that is trying, in your words, to “sabotage” her campaign?

But on the topic of her fundraising, surely you’re aware of Christine’s tremendous fundraising success — for example she raised twice as much money in just 10 days versus what Chris Coons had in the bank, with hundreds of thousands of dollars still coming in — yet surprisingly that’s also not mentioned in your post. 

In fact, Christine currently enjoys a far greater financial advantage over her Democrat opponent versus a number of other Republican candidates in races where the polls are much tighter.

On the subject of other races though, respectfully, you failed to answer my question — in your view which Republican candidates specifically, should be stripped of the additional financial support they are currently receiving from the NRSC so that that money could be transferred to Delaware? Ken Buck? Joe Miller? Pat Toomey? Rand Paul? Sharron Angle?

Surely you’re aware that money doesn’t grow on trees so that for additional money to be sent to Delaware, it would have to be taken out of another race. Which ones are you proposing to be stripped of their financial backing?

The reality is that the NRSC is looking at the Delaware Senate race no differently than the Committee does for any other race in the country, in any election cycle. On that subject, I’m wondering why you have not mentioned another strong conservative candidate — Republican Jim Huffman in Oregon who, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average, is actually polling closer to Ron Wyden than Christine currently is to Chris Coons — despite having far less in his campaign war chest than Christine. We are proud to support Jim as well and have said the same thing to his campaign that we’ve told the O’Donnell campaign and a number of other campaigns, which is that if they can begin to close the gap between their Democratic opponents, then we will be there. In the meantime, we will dedicate staff resources, fundraising assistance, strategic advice or anything else they might need to move their campaigns forward — all things that have been also offered to the O’Donnell campaign. Yet, you don’t seem interested in Jim Huffman’s candidacy along with that of other conservative Republicans in races around the country? Why is that?

It’s our responsibility to the NRSC’s over 400,000 donors to make sure the limited amount of money we do have is allocated in the very best way possible — which is why the NRSC is currently investing in Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, Sharron Angle and other strong conservative Republicans who either have slight leads, are running neck-in-neck, or are slightly behind their Democrat opponents. And this brings me back to my earlier question — specifically which of these Republican candidates are you proposing we abandon in order to shift additional resources to the O’Donnell campaign’s already bulging war chest? 

Of course, you’re likely not interested in any of that though — because as you note below, there is an unfortunate game going on here. The reality though is that we’re not the ones playing it. 

Regards,
Brian

Note to readers: As we post this, we learn that anonymous “GOP sources” are now attacking Sean Hannity over at the redoubt of conservatism known as The Huffington Post. Incredible. More to come in the morning.

Jeffrey Lord
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Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is a former aide to Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. An author and former CNN commentator, he writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com. His new book, Swamp Wars: Donald Trump and The New American Populism vs. The Old Order, is now out from Bombardier Books.
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