Avoid Incompetence

“The Conservative Victory Project wants to avoid the nomination of incompetent candidates, even if that means supporting a less conservative candidate over a more conservative candidate,” said Pitney. “Its critics see it as an effort to purge strong conservatives from the party.”

For Rove, it’s a rare moment where criticism is coming from fellow Republicans rather than Democrats.

He became a target for partisan attacks after serving as the principal strategist for President George W. Bush’s rise in Texas politics and two presidential victories. In 2010, Rove helped organize two of the most active independent political organizations -- bankrolled by unlimited funding from largely secret donors -- in a further effort to shape elections and expand the Republican Party’s influence.

American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies spent a combined $175.7 million on the 2012 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks campaign spending. The Crossroads groups backed the unsuccessful presidential bid of Republican Mitt Romney, lost 10 of 12 targeted Senate races, and were defeated in four of nine House seats.

Hide Record

Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, a grassroots group that promotes limited government and Christian values, said Rove “blamed Akin and Mourdock, anything to hide his record, which is just beyond abysmal. We are saying we are not going to put up with this. He is not going to tell conservatives what to think and not going to pick our candidates.”

Akin and Mourdock both lost to Democrats they had been favored to defeat after making controversial comments about rape.

Bozell and others cited a study by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington group that tracks political money, that found the American Crossroads groups had a success ratio of 1.29 percent of “$103,595,960 spent in the general election and ending in the desired result.”

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