The two-time loser Jim Ryun, once a congressman from Kansas, finds himself far more influential as the head of the Madison Project, which has its own “performance index.”
Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a former attorney general of Virginia who lost a race for governor last year, is now the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a PAC that bankrolls very conservative candidates.
That PAC was started by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, whose influence has always been stronger outside the Senate than within it. He quit his day job as senator in an attempt to build a campaign operation from the Heritage Foundation, the august conservative think tank that he has made far more political since he took its helm last year.
Even Allen West, who represented a congressional district in Florida for a mere one term — as a freshman, he had almost no independent influence — more effectively agitates from his perch at Fox News and with his Allen West Guardian Fund. Through the end of March, his PAC had brought in $3.8 million this cycle, despite his not running for anything. He has given only $5,000 to federal candidates.
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