As the intellectual spark behind a network of outside groups including American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (or Crossroads GPS, for short), Rove is the unofficial leader of a shadow Republican Party that intends to raise tens of millions of dollars on ads to defeat President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats in 2012. But Rove’s network relies to a great extent on a small group of wealthy Texans, including some who have been major donors to Perry.
So, this thinking goes, what happens if Perry becomes a candidate, or even the party’s presidential nominee, and those donors feel compelled — or coaxed by Perry allies — to stop giving to Rove-linked groups and instead to direct their giving to a handful of new overtly pro-Perry groups? Where does that leave the operative once praised by Bush as “the architect” of his reelection victory? And where does that leave the Crossroads groups, which are in the midst of a two-month $20 million ad campaign and are being relied on by Republicans to play such a crucial role next year?
One person who has sent checks to both American Crossroads and Perry’s campaigns predicted that if Perry wins the nomination, his donors will cut off the spigot to Rove.
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