Pro-Bush Super Pac Spending $10m-Plus on Initial Ad Campaign

The heavily funded super PAC backing Republican Jeb Bush will spend at least $10 million on broadcast time in the earliest voting presidential primary states, the first salvo in a massive ad campaign to support the former Florida governor’s bid for the Republican nomination.

Officials with Right to Rise USA say they will buy time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina media markets and in the three states. Ads are scheduled to begin in Iowa and New Hampshire on Sept. 15, in South Carolina a week later and then run continuously through the end of the year.

The plan, shared by the group with The Associated Press prior to Monday’s buy, is the first evidence of Right to Rise USA’s major strategic spending of the roughly $100 million it had on hand last month. It’s also the first major move by the group, which was developed by longtime Bush adviser and California ad maker Mike Murphy, to run alongside Bush’s own campaign organization, which is bound by federal fundraising limits.

The first ads will be positive spots promoting Bush in a field that includes 16 other major GOP candidates. That does not mean the group’s ads won’t turn to criticizing Republican rivals once the first contests draw near.

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the August 17th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.