Is support for Mike Rounds going soft? Let's read some tea leaves: Dan Lederman's Rushmore PAC used to be somewhat excited about the former governor's entry into the race to replace Senator Tim Johnson. When Rounds announced his exploratory committee in September 2012, Rushmore PAC burst with excitement and photos of their man for Senate. Of course, Rounds's Peter Norbeck PAC gave Lederman's Rushmore PAC $2000 in August, 2012, so how could Lederman not be excited? Lederman's PAC also shared the joy of Rounds's official campaign announcement at the end of November, 2012.
404: Rushmore PAC tweet from November 30, 2012, announcing Mike Rounds's announcement; link now dead.
But this morning when I search the Rushmore PAC website for "Mike Rounds," I find nothing. The three breathless September 2012 articles are gone. Come on, Dan: don't tell me the money's dried up? According to the most recent Federal Election Commission report, Rushmore PAC hasn't spent any money on Rounds during this campaign. If anything, Rushmore PAC's expenditures give the appearance of supporting Annette Bosworth. Aside from $400 for a Sioux City bookkeeping, Rushmore PAC has given $600 to Bosworth's primary political consultant Patrick Davis and $1,650 to Bosworth's primary blog booster Pat Powers. However, those expenses were all prior to Bosworth's Senate announcement in June, so we'd have to posit some sneaky spring conspiracy among friends of Lederman and friends of Bosworth, and we don't posit crazy theories like that around here, do we? But the main point: Rushmore PAC appears to be scrubbing its Rounds content. So this morning's minor political question: what could provoke any aspiring Republican brokers to quietly back away from candidate Marion Michael Rounds? p.s.: Rushmore PAC is not backing away from Rounds's primary challenger Stacey Victor Nelson. Lederman wages a frontal assault on the Fulton Fulminator with a harshly worded attack on Nelson as a cowardly robocaller. Update 12:50 CST: Team Lederman thunders back that they love Mike Rounds and maxed out their financial contributions to him in 2012. But that doesn't explain why Lederman is scrubbing his blog of Rounds references.