Last year, American Crossroads, the super-PAC conceived of by Republican operative and fundraiser Karl Rove, hatched a plan: Inject itself into 2014 GOP primary races to protect incumbents from hard-line challengers in the mold of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock who could cost the party winnable seats in Congress. Immediately, conservatives howled with outrage over an establishment group targeting tea partiers—Mike Huckabee called it “fratricide.” The plan never got off the ground, and American Crossroads itself has largely shied away from picking primary fights.
But here’s an exception: A brand-new Crossroads ad slams Matt Doheny, who’s vying with Elise Stefanik to be the GOP nominee in New York’s 21st congressional district, as a “perennial loser.” Crossroads accuses Doheny, a investment fund manager, of mistreating his employees and not paying his rent on time, while at the same time depicting him as a one-percenter who owns two islands. “With his selfish fiscal irresponsibility, Matt Doheny is no conservative,” the narrator says. “And he’s a big mistake for Congress.”
Stefanik, Doheny’s opponent, appears to be the establishment’s pick in the NY-21 race. As Mother Jones reported, she received more than $110,000 in the first quarter of 2014 from a fundraising committee backed by Paul Singer, a hedge fund manager and major GOP donor, and other prominent party funders. Singer also gave $250,000 to American Crossroads in early 2014, the group now attacking Doheny.
