House Republican super-PAC announces record spending

A super-PAC linked to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is dropping record amounts of cash to help Republicans preserve their majority in the House. 

The Congressional Leadership Fund announced on Tuesday it’s spending an extra $10.7 million on House races, bringing its total general election spending so far to $20.7 million across 15 congressional seats. 

{mosads}The outside group, endorsed and promoted by House Republican leadership, said its general election spending so far in the 2016 cycle has already nearly doubled what the group spent in total over the 2014 cycle ($11.6 million) and in 2012 ($10.7 million). 

Sources close to the CLF have told The Hill that having presidential nominee Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket — and the anxiety, bordering on panic, that has provoked among the GOP’s establishment donor class — has helped fundraising.  

GOP establishment donors who have plenty of cash to spare, but refuse to give a penny to Trump, are being told to put their money toward saving the House majority. The same pitch is working on the Senate side. 

House Republican beneficiaries of the CLF’s second wave of spending include Rep. Barbara Comstock, who’s getting a $1.5 million advertising boost in her battle to retain Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, and former FBI agent Brian Fitzpatrick, who gets an extra $900,000 for a total of $2.1 million CLF advertising support in his race to win Pennsylvania’s battleground 8th District. 

“CLF is spending more than it ever has in a general election — and we plan to spend more,” said Mike Shields, president of the CLF, in a statement Tuesday. 

“This record level of spending reflects CLF’s growing support to ensure that Speaker Ryan and House Republicans have the strongest governing majority possible next Congress.” 

“But we’re not done yet,” Shields added. “As Democrats across the country continue to struggle with a deeply disliked candidate at the top of the ticket, we will continue holding them accountable for supporting the failed policies of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.”