“Rumors and Rumblings” is a weekly feature that runs each Wednesday. It includes short nuggets of information that we glean from conversations throughout the week. Have a tip? Send it here.
1. Paul Ryan is coming to Huntsville Friday and it appears that Alabama will excede the campaign’s fundraising expectations. According to fundraising guru Kate Anderson, the combined haul from the Romney and Ryan events will easily exceed $4 million. Yellowhammer will be on hand in Huntsville Friday to give you the inside scoop.
2. Congressman Mike Rogers‘ Nov. 1 Birmingham fundraiser is on track to raise $100k. It will likely be the largest Birmingham-area fundraiser for Rogers since Karl Rove came to town to raise money for him in 2002.
3. Mack Butler won the House District 30 special election Republican primary and is well on his way to filling the seat once held by Bentley Legislative Director Blaine Galliher. It looks like we’ll be adding another strong member to the House Republican caucus.
4. There’s more work to do in the House District 34 special election as no candidate in the Republican primary was able to garner 50% of the vote. David Standridge (33.41%) and Chris Latta (23.44%) will now meet in a runoff. Yellowhammer had speculated as to whether or not Standridge would crack 50% — he clearly underperformed and will be in for a tough runoff.
5. Former Bentley Deputy Chief of Staff Margaret Whatley is now an in-house lobbyist for the Alabama Hospital Association.
6. Karl Rove’s American Crossroads is up today with a MASSIVE $12.6 million one-week ad barrage in 7 states. This is the group’s largest one-week ad buy to date and includes three ads.
The first ad, “At Stake,” features writer-actor-director-producer Clint Eastwood telling voters: “In the last few years, America has been knocked down… We need someone who can turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney. There’s not much time left, and the future of our country is at stake.” The Eastwood ad runs in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.
The second ad, “Bow,” hits Obama over his policy on China. This ad will air in Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.
The third ad, “Survive,” features business owners critiquing Obama’s failures on the economic and regulatory front. Its running in Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, and Virginia.
7. The AEA is running an agressive ad campaign to defeat Amendment 4, which simply removes racist language from the Alabama Constitution. Their radio ad is titled “Slam the door on Amendment 4.” The below ads are also running on Facebook. Although it’s not clear who’s running them, studious observers will recognize the familiar tactics that were used to attack school choice legislation last session l. More on this soon.
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