Sen. Rand Paul’s 2016 campaign is disputing the notion that a super PAC pulling its support will have any lasting effect, with a campaign spokesman saying the PAC didn’t “lift a finger” to help the candidate in the first place.
“It is untruthful for a story to say that this Super PAC stopped supporting Senator Paul, when in fact they don’t seem to have lifted a finger in the first place,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said in a statement provided to TPM.
He was reacting to a Politico report Tuesday that Purple PAC, a super PAC helmed by Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane, was yanking material support for the Kentucky senator for abandoning his libertarian ideals. In that story, Crane called the campaign a “futile crusade” and said he wants to “grab Rand by the lapels” to get him back on track.
The report was another blow to a struggling campaign. Recent polling has Paul hovering around 3 percent support nationally.
Purple PAC announced it had fundraised $1.2 million in July, the vast majority of which came from a single donor, the Philadelphia options trader Jeff Yass.
The Hill reported Wednesday that Purple PAC only spent $7,404.98 in its mid-year 2015 campaign report, with $6,500 in spending going to “logo design services.” No new expenditures were reported between July 1 and Sept. 29.
Two other super PACs explicitly backing Paul have spent into six and seven figures since July 1, with Concerned American Voters dropping more than $1.5 million on organizing, robocalls, and campaign materials for Paul, and America’s Liberty PAC spending about $500,000 on TV ads.
