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Nancy Smith

Only If You're a Republican Are Your Fundraising Tactics Deplorable

February 21, 2012 - 6:00pm

Bill Nelson scares America with a fundraising letter invoking "Karl Rove's dark-money group" and not a howl from a media watchdog. Not even one.

But Marco Rubio's camp writes a no-nonsense fundraising email about a high-level Democratic plan to destroy him and you'd think some foreign power just crashed the national grid.

(See attachments below for a look at the letters and story on Rubio.)

Isn't this what political campaigns do with their mail-outs -- shake a little fear into the faithful to loosen up their wallets?

Why is it, then, that both sides write bogeyman letters, but only one side gets hammered?

The answer to that question is fairly obvious. Politically speaking, there is no such thing as a level playing field when Republican candidates are looking for a fair shake from the media.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson wrote this -- twice actually, slightly reworded the second time -- in fundraising mailers last July and August:

"You'll never see political trickster Karl Rove's name on the ballot, but he's mobilized his dark-money group against Senate Democrats in key states, including Florida. As part of a series of $20 million in TV attack ads, I have been targeted by Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS. Their ad is a total distortion of my record. But I'm trusting Floridians will see this attack for what it is: rubbish paid for by a shadowy, partisan front group funded by a handful of billionaires."

Not a word from the media. No news story or opinion piece in any major Florida newspaper signaling an over-the-top alert or examining how much money Nelson already had stockpiled -- or delivering any hint of a letter dissection. A friend of mine at The Miami Herald, now retired, explained it to me like this:"Rove's sinister machinations in the George W. Bush administration are well enough documented that Nelson gets an easy pass on that one."

Now jump to last week, look across the aisle and here's what the campaign team of Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote in an email solicitation:

"Everyone from President Obama's press secretary, to Senator Harry Reid, to Obama's liberal campaign machines funded with millions of special-interest dollars have put Marco at the top of their enemies list.

"Marco makes President Obama and his liberal allies nervous because they know he's different. He's not like the other typical politicians in Washington who can be bought or bullied. Marco doesn't fight for ideas to serve the leadership of his party or to score petty political points. Marco fights for the things he believes in, no matter how tough or unpopular they might be. And Marco will keep fighting for these principles, no matter what President Obama or his billion-dollar attack machine throws at him."

Where Nelson slipped through the left-leaning media's truth-o-meter like a greased pig at a Sunday school picnic, Rubio was stopped and detained at the gate.

Now, frankly, I don't think either appeal is particularly earth-shattering, but the Tampa Times had to make its statement in the headline: "Rubio PAC plays up victim role as it seeks donations."

And an article in the Orlando Sentinel slights Rubio's message because it "relies on evidence from a conservative website called The Daily Caller, which asserts that the rising Florida Republican is the victim of 'a larger effort to strangle the baby in the crib' ..." The story concluded, "Quick to take offense and 'fight back,' Team Rubio included a form for donors to send money."

It's been interesting over the years to watch this phenomenon, seeing with what intensity mainstreamers focus on GOP fundraising -- particularly in direct mail. Treating Rubio's email like a crime scene investigation is just the latest example.

The letter is a solicitation for campaign cash, yes. It's a powerful push to get conservatives to pony up. Democratic mailers use the same tactic, yet in this entire campaign season I can remember just once seeing a reporter from a liberal news organization jump on his unicorn to make color commentary on a Democratic fundraising incident -- let alone a letter. It came this week from Marc Caputo of The Miami Herald, a blog reminding taxpayers that they will subsidize Obama's fundraising trip to Florida on Thursday.

The Chicago-trained Barack Obama has a $1 billion war chest and Air Force One, but in the eyes of the mainstream media generally, he's the gentle underdog who will face down rich, nasty Republicans.

All Rubio's people have to do is bring up the thought that their candidate needs help to combat tough opponents and the mainstreamers are right there to set the truth-o-meter on speed dial and sarcastically claim the charismatic Republican freshman is using the "victim card."

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0895.

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