Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has some money problems and after the debacle in Iowa this week, she has decided to dial back on some ad spending in two states:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is trying to conserve cash and pulled down TV ads in Nevada and South Carolina after a disappointing third-place standing in Iowa that failed to provide a fundraising bump…
On Tuesday, Warren’s campaign canceled a flight of advertisements that were going to run on TV in Nevada and South Carolina from Feb. 17 to 23 at a cost of about $375,000, according to Advertising Analytics.
Warren still has TV time reserved in those states over the next month, according to the company. She has roughly $2 million worth of ad time set aside for those two states this month and will not be entirely dark anywhere…
Asked about the decision, Warren told the Post, “I just always want to be careful about how we spend our money.”
That’s always a good idea but it’s worth pointing out that Warren’s 4th quarter fundraising results dipped slightly, putting her in 4th place behind Sanders, Buttigieg, and Biden. As of the end of the year, Warren had just under $14 million cash on hand and much of that was presumably spent on Iowa.
Meanwhile, a member of Warren’s campaign team named Roger Lau lashed out at Buttigieg startegist Michael Halle on Twitter today, accusing him of trying to skirt the laws governing campaign coordination with super PACs:
Was this meant to be a DM or did you mean to tweet out this instruction to your super PAC?
(Fun fact about how some campaigns exploit our broken campaign finance laws: if it was a DM it would be illegal.) https://t.co/yetULmZRjw
— Roger Lau 劉煒 (@RogerLau) February 5, 2020
A Warren aligned group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee issued a statement agreeing with Lau’s insinuation:
Our statement on Pete corruptly directing a Super PAC: https://t.co/xDIdU63iPJ pic.twitter.com/rieWmrJq3k
— BoldProgressives.org (@BoldProgressive) February 5, 2020
It’s illegal for campaigns to coordinate with or in any way direct spending by PACs. CNN reports there is a Buttigieg super PAC buying ads but they denied any campaign coordination:
One super PAC, VoteVets PAC, has spent heavily on Buttigieg’s behalf and this week reserved more than $550,000 in advertising to boost his campaign in New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday’s primary there.
Buttigieg is a veteran of the Navy Reserves and served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014. VoteVets’ current ad touts those credentials to argue that his military experience taught him teamwork that will serve a divided country well if he’s elected president.
In a statement late Wednesday afternoon, VoteVets chairman Jon Solz denied any coordination with the Buttigieg campaign.
“We independently decide our ad strategy,” he said. “We cannot and do not coordinate our ads with the campaign in any way.”
To be fair, that’s exactly what he has to say to avoid the possibility of charges so take it for what it’s worth. But the bigger picture here is that the Warren team is clearly feeling the pinch of tight finances and is also feeling a bit chippy about rivals like Buttigieg who have more money to spend.
