They're back.
A super PAC opposed to Donald Trump plans to launch a new round of advertising this week ahead of Super Tuesday. The commercials by Our Principles PAC will run nationally on Fox News and CNN, said Katie Packer, who runs the political committee. She would not disclose the size of the buy, which will feature footage of the real-estate magnate praising Democrats and President Obama's 2009 stimulus package.
The advertising is the latest attempt by the group to dislodge the Republican front-runner and cast him as a "conservative of convenience." Our Principles PAC and the anti-tax Club for Growth are the only outside groups not closely aligned with candidates that have sought to confront Trump, who is widely distrusted by the GOP's establishment class.
In a memo released earlier this week, Packer implored fellow Republicans to at least try to tackle Trump. "No one has stopped him because no one has really tried," she wrote, noting that only about 9% of the $215 million spent on ads and voter contacts in the White House contest so far has targeted the New York billionaire.
Recently filed election reports show virtually all of the group's funding in January came from Marlene Ricketts, the wife of TD Ameritrade founder J. Joe Ricketts, a longtime Republican donor and activist. The family owns the Chicago Cubs.
A source close to the PAC said other donors, rather than members of the Ricketts family, are funding the new round of anti-Trump advertising.
Minnesota broadcasting magnate Stanley Hubbard told USA TODAY this week that he donated $10,000 to the anti-Trump cause because the group is merely highlighting Trump's own statements. "I want every candidate to tell the truth," he said.
It's not clear how much of an impact the new commercials might have ahead of Super Tuesday when 11 states stage GOP primaries and caucuses. The group has spent more than $3.8 million since it was launched in mid-January, and Trump has won three of the four early contests.
Trump and his campaign aides have repeatedly described the super PAC's effort as a push by out-of-touch elites, and Trump took to Twitter this week to warn the Ricketts' family to "be careful."Brian Baker, the Ricketts family's political adviser, said a "sustained effort to explain information about Mr. Trump's background to voters" is needed.
Trump "has been so successful because people are so disappointed and angry and ashamed over where this country has been taken," Baker said. "I share in that disappointment, but I dont think that Donald Trump is the right nominee for the Republican Party.