When Lauren Boebert put some blame on Hollywood for forcing her to modify Colorado districts in her reelection bid, she was simply the most recent in a protracted line of Republicans to focus on the trade and its lopsided help for the left.
Not a cycle goes by the place some GOP candidate doesn’t assault Hollywood, with donor pool that overwhelmingly backs Democrats.
Speaking over the weekend to Steve Bannon for his podcast, Boebert accused “Hollywood elites who are trying to buy my current district.” “It’s not just Aspen that the money is coming from,” she stated. “It’s coming from Hollywood. When you have Barbra Streisand coming in and donating to the Democrat, when you have Ryan Reynolds coming in and donating to the Democrat, it shows you that Hollywood is trying to buy their way into Congress.”
Boebert was referring to Adam Frisch, the previous Aspen metropolis councilman who would have been her probably Democratic opponent within the basic election. Frisch, who almost beat Boebert within the 2022 midterms, raised about $8 million as of the top of September, way over Boebert.
But final week, Boebert introduced that she was switching districts, from Colorado’s third to Colorado’s 4th, ostensibly on the premise that she could have higher odds in an space that leans extra closely to Republicans.
Boebert advised Bannon that switching districts would “shut down the money, the dark money, that was flowing into our district to try and purchase this seat,” as she had been a prime Democratic goal.
Frisch did get contributions from Streisand and Reynolds, who every gave $1,000 final spring, together with different Hollywood names like Rob Reiner, Tony Shaloub and Richard Kind. But in line with the Center for Responsive Politics, Frisch has drawn a complete of $75,583 from showbiz sources as of Sept. 30 — a big sum, however nonetheless only a fraction of his total haul. (His marketing campaign didn’t instantly return a request for remark.)
That stated, Boebert’s assault on her opponent for being bankrolled by the “Hollywood elites” is definitely a reasonably frequent tactic amongst Republicans, going again many, many cycles and with various levels of resonance.
For one, it will get media consideration, extra so than different industries — and right here we’re, responsible as charged. It additionally performs proper into the tradition wars. Boebert’s entire id is tied up in that us vs. them enchantment, significantly amongst rural voters.
While railing in opposition to the “elites” could have performed effectively in maximizing help within the third District’s rural areas vs. rich and movie star stuffed Aspen, Boebert has an entire different problem in making it by the first in her new district, the place she faces a big discipline of different Republican candidates.
As a lot as she could complain in regards to the exterior affect of cash, Boebert in no way has restricted herself to hometown donors, drawing contributions from outside-the-district movie star figures like Jenny Craig (within the 2020 cycle), whereas Liberty Media’s John Malone, listed with a Florida deal with, gave the utmost $6,600 to her marketing campaign final yr.
In different phrases, they’re elites of a special kind. But in Boebert’s latest problem to carry on to a spot in Congress, in opposition to different GOP rivals, she appears to be hoping that a number of swipes at Hollywood will assist her stand out from the group.
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