Tea party activists are set to make their next move against GOP strategist Karl Rove, telling big American Crossroads super PAC donors they wasted their money last election.
According to CNN, tea party activist Brent Bozell acquired an email list of approximately 200 donors that gave six- or seven-figure contributions to the Rove-backed super PAC and plans to send the donors an email urging them to reconsider support for Rove's organizations.
"Groups like Crossroads squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in what were arguably the most inept campaign advertising efforts ever," says the letter, first obtained by CNN.
The letter cites an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation that calculated the return on investment of the more than $100 million spent by American Crossroads last election cycle as being a mere 1.29 percent.
Rove's alleged ineptitude has drawn the ire of the tea party wing of the Republican Party, which has attacked his support for moderate candidates as a failing strategy.
"In 2012, the only Senate Republican winners were Jeff Flake, Deb Fischer, and Ted Cruz -- all of whom enjoyed significant tea party and conservative support," the letter points out. "Meanwhile, more moderate candidates like Tommy Thompson, Heather Wilson, Rick Berg, and Denny Rehberg went down to defeat despite significant support from Crossroads."
Rove has said he sees it differently. American Crossroads has launched an offshoot group -- the Conservative Victory Project -- that will attempt to protect against unelectable candidates winning GOP primaries. Rove has used the losing Republican Senate candidacies of Missouri's Todd Akin and Indiana's Richard Mourdock, both of whom lost handily in 2012 after making controversial comments about rape, as examples of the kind of electoral disasters the group would work to prevent.
The letter's co-signers say Rove is scapegoating. "Mr. Rove and his allies must stop blaming conservatives for his disastrous results," they argue.
The letter goes on: "No matter how he positions himself in this attempt at damage control, Mr. Rove's efforts will not elect the type of leaders who will come to Washington to fight for conservative principles."
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