New pro-Cruz ad blitz bankrolled by mysterious super PAC

Introduction

Update, Jan. 31, 2016, 5:29 p.m.: This article has been updated to include new information about Stand for Truth’s contributors.

A new super PAC promoting Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential candidacy on Wednesday launched a multi-million dollar ad blitz — the first major TV push by outside groups supporting the ascendant Republican.

“We are at war,” a narrator says in the ad’s opening frames. “Not just abroad, but here at home.”

The ad later cuts to a photo of fellow Republican candidate and Sen. Marco Rubio, who’s standing behind a lectern.

“But Washington continues to fail us with groups like the Gang of Eight,” says the woman in the ad’s voiceover, referring to a bipartisan group of senators that in 2013 drafted an immigration reform bill.

Cruz, in contrast, is a “proven conservative,” the ad asserts.

Stand for Truth is the name of the newly-formed group behind the ad flurry.

But the group has yet to reveal many truths about itself: It hasn’t volunteered information about its donors or how much money they’ve contributed to the group. Federal law doesn’t mandate that Stand for Truth do so until Jan. 31, the day before the Iowa caucuses.

When it comes to TV advertising, Stand for Truth has already eclipsed a gaggle of other groups complementing Cruz’s official campaign committee.

Consider that three sister super PACs — Keep the Promise I, Keep the Promise II and Keep the Promise III — have cumulatively aired fewer than 100 TV ads so far this election despite forming last spring and raising tens of millions of dollars, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG.

The ad’s sponsor

Stand for Truth registered as a super PAC in November — about eight months after Cruz declared his candidacy.

As of today, Stand for Truth has no website. It lacks a social media presence. Its only publicly named associate is Eric Lycan, the group’s legal counsel.

In announcing the ad buy earlier this month, Lycan told Politico “Sen. Cruz is under attack from all directions and will be for the remainder of this election. Stand for Truth is here to make sure an accurate message reaches voters.”

Lycan did not respond to requests for comment.

Who’s behind it?

Lycan served as legal counsel for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2014 re-election effort — perhaps surprising considering Cruz’s continual quarrelling with the Kentucky Republican.

Investor Hal Lambert of Texas is also a major backer of Stand for Truth, according to The Washington Post. Lambert, who has raised money for Cruz in the past, was previously the Texas Republican Party’s finance chair.

Lambert, who did not respond to requests for comment, has already maxed out his contributions to the official Cruz campaign, though he won’t run into this problem in donating to Stand for Truth. Like any super PAC, Stand for Truth has no limits on how much it may raise or spend, as long as the group does not directly coordinate its spending with the candidate.

Republican ad firm SRCP Media is spearheading Stand for Truth’s media buys. The firm has previously bought ads for the campaigns of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as well as outside groups such as the American Future Fund and Americans for a Balanced Budget.

Money in

Stand for Truth revealed the identities of its bankrollers on Jan. 30 — two days before the Iowa caucuses.

Since forming in November, Stand for Truth raised nearly $2.5 million through Dec. 31, according to the group’s first fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission.

One family’s contributions make up more than a third of that fundraising total. Texan investor Adam Ross and his wife Tara Ross — an author who writes about constitutional history — together gave $1 million to the pro-Cruz group. A longtime friend of Cruz, Adam Ross is a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars came from corporations and limited liability companies.

Tranquil Path Investments Ltd., owned by banker Robert Marling, donated $250,000 to Stand for Truth. Marling’s wife, Kim, also donated $25,000 in December. Robert Marling also donated to another pro-Cruz super PAC: Keep the Promise PAC.

Records show that Marling has likewise donated to conservative Club for Growth Action, as well as the 2012 presidential campaigns of Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann.

Money out

The pro-Cruz super PAC has spent $4.8 million on radio ads, TV ads and other pro-Cruz efforts as of Jan. 31, according to federal independent expenditure records, which must be filed immediately after such expenditures are made. This indicates Stand for Truth’s war chest has grown since the end of December.

The January ad blitz coincides with numerous other ad volleys in Iowa by candidates and outside groups alike.

So far in January, Iowa TV markets played home to 55 percent of the presidential campaign ads aired nationwide, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from media tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG.

Kantar Media/CMAG monitors television ads that run on local broadcast TV in all 211 media markets, as well as national network and national cable TV. It does not monitor local cable stations or track digital advertising.

Why watch this group

Stand for Truth moves from the periphery amid reported conflict between Cruz’s campaign and his three main supportive super PACs: Keep the Promise I, Keep the Promise II and Keep the Promise III. Cruz is said to be frustrated that the groups are hoarding their flushed cash reserves.

As a result, nearly 90 percent of all pro-Cruz TV ads have come from the Cruz campaign itself.

This stands in stark contrast to fellow Republican candidate Jeb Bush, whose campaign has only sponsored 5 percent of all pro-Bush TV ads, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Kantar Media/CMAG data. Bush’s TV messaging is instead being outsourced to super PAC Right to Rise USA.

The emergence of Stand for Truth could mean super PACs will become responsible for more pro-Cruz ads.

This story was co-published with Al Jazeera America and the Huffington Post.