Bachmann Flack: No Money A Good Thing
Michelle Marston, campaign spokesperson for newly-embattled Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), tells Politico that the NRCC's Independent Expenditure arm's decision not to pay for airtime on the candidate's behalf should be interpreted as a good thing.
Says Marston: "We laid a really strong foundation. We have really done a good job over several months of getting our grass roots out there. We’ve gone out there, raised money, done the stuff we needed to do. In some ways this is kind of a nod (from the NRCC) that you’re in better shape than other members."
Because campaigns are not allowed to coordinate with the NRCC, Marston said this is merely her speculative interpretation. But in an e-mail sent out to reporters this afternoon, NRCC spokeswoman Karen Hanretty backed it up.
"There are more paths to victory for Republican candidates than we have money to fund," Hanretty wrote. "Some candidates, like Congresswoman Bachmann, are sitting on more than $1 million cash on hand in districts that President Bush won in 2004 by double digits."
In any event, Marston said Bachmann's campaign "never counted on that money. We considered that as icing on the cake."
After last weekend telling Politico that it was too little too late for Bachmann's Democratic challenger El Tinklenberg to make hay out of the sudden influx of campaign donations, Marston basically stuck to that message when pressed on Thursday.
"We always knew this was going to be a tight race," she said. "It just tightened up. I still think it’s pretty hard in two weeks for them to be able to do what they needed to over the last several months."