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Abandoned by Trump, GOP, grassroots, Mastriano's gubernatorial bid is tanking [1]
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Date: 2022-09-27
“I can’t even assess things because I don’t see a campaign,” Matt Brouillette, president of GOP-aligned Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, told The New York Times. “I’ve not seen anything that is even a semblance of a campaign.”
The problem for Mastriano is twofold: He's got no money for paid advertising but has simultaneously shut out the press (i.e., the best alternative to advertising for getting one's message out). In the first three weeks of September, Mastriano has spoken with just three conservative outlets. At the same time, the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has taken questions from more than 40 news outlets across the state, according to his campaign.
Among the list of Republicans who have left Mastriano twisting in the wind financially are Donald Trump (who endorsed him last-minute) and the Republican Governors Association (RGA), which has invested in GOP nominees in half a dozen other states.
Asked about the RGA’s lack of investment in Mastriano, group co-chair and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey responded, “We don’t fund lost causes and we don’t fund landslides. ... You have to show us something, you have to demonstrate that you can move numbers and you can raise resources.”
All this has led to quite the ad disparity in the Keystone State. Even though Brouillette's group has funded over 800 pro-Mastriano TV ads through its PAC, Shapiro has aired more than 23,000 ads, according to the Times.
That's a real problem. The general rule of thumb in politics these days is for opposing candidates to virtually fight each other to a draw on the airwaves. Instead, Shapiro is carpet-bombing the state while Mastriano struggles to release smoke signals. That lopsidedness is likely to continue with recent campaign finance reports showing Mastriano with roughly $400,000 in the bank to Shapiro's $13.5 million.
As one might expect, Mastriano is trailing badly in the polls—by double-digits in four of six surveys conducted in September and featured by FiveThirtyEight.
The sad state of affairs for Mastriano's campaign led to one of the saddest candidate videos in modern politics.
x Doug is very sad. He needs cash now.
Does he not know he can call JG Wentworth?? #PAGOV pic.twitter.com/0hxHjUE3MU — J.J. Abbott 📮 (@jjabbott) September 22, 2022
“Really not finding a lot of support from national-level Republican organizations, and so we’re calling on people across Pennsylvania and the United States of America to give directly to our campaign,” a dejected Mastriano admitted in a message posted last week on his Facebook page. "These large groups, we have not seen much assistance coming from them and we're 49 days out," he continued, accusing GOP groups of "chasing dreams" in other states where the chances of winning weren't good.
Clearly if Mastriano actually had the grassroots support he's seeking to drum up, he wouldn't be posting videos begging for donations.
But Mastriano's campaign is just one self-inflicted wound after the next. When the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry wanted to host a debate between the Republican and Democratic rivals, Mastriano declined, leaving the stage to Shapiro alone to answer questions from business leaders across the state.
Last weekend, the Mastriano campaign organized a rally at the state capitol that drew a grand total of roughly 60 people, about half of whom were campaign volunteers, according to Times reporter Reid Epstein. Sounds more like open mic night at the Comedy Zone than an insurgent candidacy.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/27/2125500/-No-money-no-ads-flagging-support-Mastriano-s-GOP-gubernatorial-candidacy-is-cratering
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