June 22, 2010 07:08 PM UTC

Rove's 527 Falls Short of Fundraising Expectations

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• by: Middle of the Road

Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie’s group, American Crossroads, fell just a tad shy of its publicly announced expectations of raising $52 million to take back Congress. According to Politico, the 527 has

…raised only $200 last month, according to a report it filed Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, bringing its total raised since launching in March to a little more than $1.25 million. It spent $76,000 in May, primarily on legal fees and salaries, bringing its total spending to $140,000.

It appears to be having a more positive effect on the DSSC, who is using the group’s potential as a scare tactic tool in its latest fundraising email.

“Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group just announced on Friday that it is turning the full force of its fundraising machine against no fewer than eleven Democratic candidates,” warned a Sunday fundraising email from J.B. Poersch, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “The DSCC is counting on every one of our grassroots supporters to defeat Republicans and defend President Obama in November. We can’t win without your help.”

Don’t count American Crossroads out just yet. With the open disenchantment over Steele’s leadership as Chair of the Republican National Committee, disgruntled wealthy Republican donors are looking for alternative groups to sink their influence into. With Gillespie’s background as former Chair of the RNC, former White House counselor for Bush and former lobbyist for groups such as Enron, the American Petroleum Institute and the US Chamber of Commerce, as well as Rove’s resume, this adorable twosome has the potential to become a major player, provided they can raise more than $200 a month.

Colorado’s Senate race makes their announced list of 11 targeted Senate seats. Very good news for Buck in particular if he wins the primary, since his fundraising efforts up until now have been anemic. In addition to purchasing an ad buy in Nevada taking aim at Harry Reid, American Crossroads’s list of the Lucky Eleven include the following:

Also last week, American Crossroads announced 10 other Senate races in which it planned to air ads criticizing the Democratic candidate or boosting the Republican, including Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington state.