The Wanna-be Sen. Dave Mc Cormick (R. Hedge Funds)
--The wanna-be Sen. Dave McCormick (R. Hedge Funds)
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There is so much money sloshing around in American politics, it may not matter. The test will be Pennsylvania where the ultra rich are pouring many millions to help Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
There is an all-star team of economic royalists backing the former hedge fund CEO trying to beat three term Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey. They include; hedge fund billionaires Ken Griffin, the leader of the pack, and Paul Singer, private equity's Steve Schwarzman, investor Jeffrey Yass and the Koch Brothers network.
Keystone Renewal, the political action vehicle, is expected to spend up to $100 million on behalf of one of their own who is likely to protect their interests. He supports extending the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy at a cost of $2 trillion, and their special interest provisions, like carried interest.
Although Casey and affiliated Democratic groups are outraising McCormick and counterparts, the unprecedented involvement of these fat cats in the Senate race will dwarf that advantage in the biggest spending Senate race of the year.
McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater, ran for the Senate two years ago and lost in the primary. He needs that outside help given disadvantages: born in Pennsylvania he has spent the last 15 years in Connecticut where his firm invested in bolstering the Chinese military. Like other Republicans, he's on the defensive on changing abortion positions.
There is no state more central to the 2024 election. Casey is a must win for the Democrats to have any chance to hold the Senate majority. Trump probably needs Pennsylvania to get the necessary 270 electoral votes.
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Polls, there are plenty, show Harris, after trouncing Trump in the debate, with a slight lead. Casey generally runs three or four points ahead of her.
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The markers are clear. Harris and Casey have to replicate the huge 2020 Democratic margin in the voter-rich Philadelphia suburbs and at least match the overwhelmingly Democratic, but hard to turn out Black vote in the city. The Republicans need to improve Trump's margins in the non-college educated, white working class counties in Western and northeastern Pennsylvania.
After President Biden withdrew in July, the McCormick team aimed their fire at Harris and her left wing positions during her 2019 unsuccessful Presidential quest. But the target has shifted to Casey.
Predictably the attacks are on immigration, a porous border and the cost of living, which McCormick blames on Biden's big spending.
The incumbent has good responses. Like other Democrats, he wraps himself around the tough, bi-partisan border control bill that Trump ordered congressional Republicans to quash. On the cost of living, Casey has been out front for a year on price gouging --"greedflation" -- and charging companies are reducing the size of packages without reducing the prices or "shrinkflation."
The Democrat has much to attack. McCormick has a good resume, wealthy businessman, Gulf War veteran and top Treasury official in the George W. Bush Administration, but also a lot of political baggage. The carpetbagger label sticks, Democrats say, referring to his fifteen years in Connecticut before returning back to Pennsylvania.
This is magnified when he mispronounces Yuengling, Pennsylvania's top beer maker, or confuses Philadelphia Mississippi with the City of Brotherly Love, or tries to present himself as a farmer; his family farm raised Arabian horses.
The McCormick-led Bridgewater invested millions in Chinese companies making planes, ships and other military items. This complicates his efforts to echo Donald Trump's China bashing.
The abortion issue is fraught with irony. Casey's father, the Governor decades ago, was the Democrat's leading anti-abortion advocate, and initially the son followed suit. However his position evolved and he's stepping up the criticism of McCormick on abortion..
In his Senate race two years ago, McCormick, playing to the party's right wing, praised the prospective decision to end abortion rights and said the only exception to a ban should be for the life of the mother. Again, following his leader, Trump, he says he no longer holds these positions.
Any controversy over abortion this year favors Democrats.
Casey would have this race sewed up, Democrats believe, if it weren't for the sheer quantity of Keystone Renewal's attack ads in the closing weeks.
But they may have a card that trumps (sorry) Ken Griffin's money: Taylor Swift, a native Pennsylvanian who last month endorsed Harris. I'm usually skeptical of celebrity endorsements. But Swift has a huge following, 384 million Instagram followers; the day following her endorsement over 400,000 went to the federal government's vote.gov. She is especially popular with young voters and suburbanites.
She makes Republicans nervous. Trump thundered, "I hate Taylor Swift."
There is so much money sloshing around in American politics, it may not be decisive. The test will be Pennsylvania where the ultra rich are pouring many millions to help Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
There is an all-star team of economic royalists backing the former hedge fund CEO trying to beat three term Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey. They include; hedge fund billionaires Ken Griffin, the leader of the pack, and Paul Singer, private equity's Steve Schwarzman, investor Jeffrey Yass and the Koch Brothers network.
Keystone Renewal, the political action vehicle, is expected to spend up to $100 million on behalf of one of their own who is likely to protect their interests. He supports extending the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy at a cost of $2 trillion, and their special interest provisions, like carried interest.
Although Casey and affiliated Democratic groups are outraising McCormick and counterparts, the unprecedented involvement of these fat cats in the Senate race will dwarf that advantage in the biggest spending Senate race of the year.
McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater, ran for the Senate two years ago and lost in the primary. He needs that outside help given disadvantages: born in Pennsylvania he has spent the last 15 years in Connecticut where his firm invested in bolstering the Chinese military. Like other Republicans, he's on the defensive on changing abortion positions.
There is no state more central to the 2024 election. Casey is a must win for the Democrats to have any chance to hold the Senate majority. Trump probably needs Pennsylvania to get the necessary 270 electoral votes.