Karl Rove reprises role as Democrats' bogeyman * 522 Comments * * * RSS * Email * Print The role Karl Rove (shown) plays as

Karl Rove reprises role as Democrats' bogeyman

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The role Karl Rove (shown) plays as a godfather to a massive spending effort on behalf of congressional Republicans has made him an increasingly prominent target for Democrats. | AP Photo
Karl Rove has once again become a prominent target for Democrats. | AP Photo Close

That headline — like so many others on the subject – overstated Rove’s involvement , according to Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for American Crossroads, who called Democratic efforts to target Rove “desperate.”

“If Republicans are talking about jobs, the economy, the failed stimulus, the largest tax hike in history, multi-trillion-dollar deficits and wasteful new entitlements — and the Democrats’ retort involves the former president’s deputy chief of staff and a group he supports, the Democrats will lose far more seats than anyone imagines,” said Collegio.
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Still, Collegio said he has had to make a concerted effort to correct mischaracterizations of the role he says Rove and Gillespie actually played.

“I’ve probably asked for 20-30 corrections in the past three months (from small blogs to the NYT editorial page), and I believe many are changed without a statement of correction,” he wrote Wednesday in an e-mail to POLITICO, which — at Collegio’s request — has also changed or corrected references to Rove and Gillespie’s roles.

“While both Rove and Gillespie encouraged the formation of the groups, neither is on the board, is compensated, consults for or is on any of the incorporating documents,” Collegio explained, adding that emphasizing Rove and Gillepsie’s roles implicitly “diminish the roles of other [American Crossroads] executives, most notably [Crossroads chairman] Mike Duncan and [president] Steven Law.”

Yet, GOP donors and consultants say Rove and Gillespie’s impact on the Crossroads groups — as well as a related group located in the same office suite called American Action Network and other independent groups boosting Republicans — cannot be overestimated.

Not only did they flag the need for such groups and help sketch out the blueprint, but they were involved in recruiting their staff — including Duncan and Law — and have worked to ensure that the groups coordinate their efforts without overlapping.

Soon after American Crossroads debuted, one person involved in organizing the groups told POLITICO that Rove provided “a laying-on of hands” for the groups partly by persuading major Republican donors who had become stingier with their giving to support the groups.

Rove’s efforts on behalf of the groups have sparked grumbling from some establishment Republicans who contend he is undercutting the Republican National Committee.

And mostly Democratic advocates for stricter campaign finance rules have made Rove the poster child in their effort to pass White House-backed legislation to blunt the effect of a January Supreme Court ruling that accorded new flexibility to American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS and other 501(c)(4) and 527 groups that can accept corporate funding and that, in the case of 501(c)(4)'s, don't have to report donors.