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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Tech leaders and Democratic Celebration-aligned teams are amongst these funneling hundreds of thousands into Utah to assist unbiased Evan McMullin’s bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
The race has been inundated with exterior spending, with tremendous PACs unaffiliated with both the Lee or McMullin marketing campaign spending closely on shiny mailers and assault adverts on the native associates of the 4 main tv networks within the lead-up to the midterm elections.
The amount of cash pouring into the race displays how McMullin has turned Utah from a political afterthought to a reliable battleground. The surface spending supporting him additionally illustrates the standard partisan dynamics at play within the independent-versus-Republican race and the rising actuality that some Democratic Celebration-aligned teams and donors see McMullin — an anti-abortion conservative — as one path towards stopping Republicans from controlling the Senate.
McMullin and Lee’s marketing campaign have raised $6.9 million and $8.6 million respectively, marketing campaign finance filings printed Friday that cowl as much as Oct. 19 present.
Although they’re spending closely on their very own marketing campaign adverts, polling, consultants and workers, the candidates are receiving boosts from unbiased expenditure committees that aren’t allowed to coordinate with their campaigns.
Essentially the most energetic is a pro-McMullin tremendous PAC referred to as Put Utah First. It’s spent $5.1 million all through 2022, together with $3 million from Oct. 1 to Oct. 19.
The group has obtained most of its funding from Blake Murray, the previous CEO of the monetary providers expertise firm Divvy. Murray is amongst quite a few Utah expertise leaders and enterprise capitalists supporting McMullin and co-hosting a fundraiser Tuesday with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams. The group additionally obtained $250,000 from American Bridge’s political motion committee. American Bridge has spent $45 million nationwide on the midterm elections and is running assault adverts in conventional battleground states reminiscent of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Put Utah First received a further $100,000 from the Republican Accountability PAC, which can be working adverts in opposition to Senate candidates together with Herschel Walker in Georgia and J.D. Vance in Ohio.
Put Utah First additionally has obtained $700,000 in whole from members of the Cumming household, which owns POWDR, one of many Rockies’ largest ski resort operators. POWDR’s founder and chairman John Cumming; his spouse, Kristi; his mom, Annette; and his brother, David, are longtime Democratic donors and this cycle have additionally contributed to Deliberate Parenthood’s political motion committee, the Arizona Democratic Celebration and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.
The group’s adverts in opposition to Lee are set to ominous music, portraying the second-term Republican as an obstructionist unwilling to compromise in Washington, D.C., and highlighting votes in opposition to spending payments that will have funded advantages for first responders and veterans.
Whereas not mentioning their very own supply of funds, the Put Utah First adverts blast him for taking marketing campaign contributions from particular curiosity teams.
The tremendous PAC didn’t reply to requests for remark. The McMullin marketing campaign stated it wasn’t allowed to coordinate with exterior teams spending within the race, however that the contributions despatched on to the marketing campaign mirrored assist from throughout the political spectrum.
“We’re pleased with the cross-partisan coalition we’ve constructed to unite Utahns and remedy the mounting issues our state and our nation face,” Kelsey Koenen Witt, McMullin’s marketing campaign spokesperson, stated. “It’s a lie from the Lee marketing campaign and his allies that the Democratic Celebration is financially supporting Evan.”
On his private Twitter account, Lee stated that the unbiased expenditures attacking him prompt McMullin leans Democratic. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck,” Lee wrote.
McMullin was endorsed by Utah Democrats in April, insists he would caucus with neither social gathering if elected and holds conservative positions on abortion, weapons and authorities spending. He’s additionally a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.
Impartial expenditure teams supporting Republican Senate candidates all through the nation are defending Lee and investing in adverts and mailers in opposition to McMullin, together with the Koch Community-backed Individuals for Prosperity, the Client Know-how Affiliation, Liberty Champions PAC and Crypto Freedom, a pro-Bitcoin PAC affiliated with Membership for Progress.
The conservative Membership for Progress Motion PAC had spent greater than $3.7 million to oppose McMullin as of Oct. 19 and stated final week that its whole spending had grown to greater than $8 million. One of many group’s adverts assaults McMullin’s previous remarks about Republicans that led to a lawsuit. McMullin stated the advert was inaccurate and defamatory and has taken authorized motion over it.
David McIntosh, the group’s CEO, stated Membership for Progress Motion felt it wanted to spend cash defending Lee and attacking McMullin given the opposite facet’s exterior spending, to make sure Utah didn’t “take away the chance for Republicans to get a majority within the U.S. Senate.”
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Observe AP’s protection of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
Try https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to be taught extra concerning the points and elements at play within the 2022 midterm elections.
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