Major Bachmann Super PAC forms
Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks outside her campaign bus after the Black Hawk County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011, in Waterloo, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)A trio of well-known conservatives have organized a so-called “super PAC” to aid Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination, according to sources familiar with the move.
Citizens for a Working America, as the group is known, will be chaired by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Ed Brookover, a longtime political consultant and adviser to Bachmann, will be involved as will conservative lawyer and economist Marc Nuttle.
“Michele Bachmann is a principled conservative with the policy prescriptions our country needs to pull out of its economic doldrums,” said Brookover in an email exchange with The Fix. “We look forward to promoting her and her programs to the American public.”
The group was formed in the fall of 2010 and spent more than $250,000 to defeat former South Carolina Democratic Rep. John Spratt. It will now be turned entirely to aid Bachmann. It joins “Keep Conservatives United”, a super PAC formed last month with the express purpose of helping Bachmann win the GOP nomination.
Under Federal Election Commission rules, super PACs can raise unlimited donations but have to report the identity of their contributors and detail their expenditures.
Already former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has a super PAC supporting him that collected better than $12 million over the first six months of 2011.
Despite being in the presidential race for less than a week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has no fewer than six super PACs working to help him win the Republican nomination with a group called “Make Us Great Again” leading the way.
The formation of a Bachmann super PAC by major conservative heavy hitters is an acknowledgment that without an outside group protecting her flank in the race to come, she could well be outgunned by Perry and Romney.
It’s also an affirmation that Bachmann, Romney and Perry comprise the top tier of the Republican presidential field and are ramping up for a costly battle for the nomination over the next six months.
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