CNN reports on the latest iteration of the iron law of emulation: Republicans are launching their own version of American Bridge.
Now, in the wake of an RNC report calling on the party to modernize its hobbled and outdated infrastructure, three Republicans are stepping into the research void to launch a conservative counterweight to American Bridge.
The new GOP research outfit is called "America Rising," and it will be helmed by Romney's former campaign manager Matt Rhoades, who earned his stripes in politics as an opposition research specialist at the RNC.
Rhoades will be joined in the venture by two of Washington's leading young media strategists, Tim Miller and Joe Pounder, both of whom recently left the RNC's communications shop.
The organization plans to immediately begin training its sights on potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, along with focusing on Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates in the near term.
"We plan to start this enterprise because so many Republicans seem to agree that there is a need on our side of the aisle for an entity that is focused on solely holding Democrats accountable for their actions and records using research, candidate tracking, rapid response and digital tools," Rhoades told CNN in a statement.
The RNC's so-called "autopsy" report released last week, which studied the party's failings during last year's campaign, called for a "well-funded" research and video tracking organization that "does nothing but post inappropriate Democrat utterances and act as a clearinghouse for information on Democrats."
America Rising, which bills itself as "a permanent research infrastructure" for the Republican Party and conservative organizations, would seem to fill that space.
