I actually had this same thought yesterday.
Cruz backer Steve King suggests Trump is buying endorsements
Texan's support network scrambles as the New Yorker shows commanding lead in Iowa.
By KATIE GLUECK and ANNA PALMER
01/26/16
CENTERVILLE, Iowa – Ted Cruz’s most influential backers, stunned by Donald Trump’s commanding lead and growing list of endorsements, opened a new line of attack against the GOP front-runner on Tuesday – suggesting the New Yorker is buying support.
One of Cruz’s most important surrogates in Iowa, Rep. Steve King, on Tuesday said Donald Trump has succeeded in lining up critical endorsements because he's able to make offers that are "awfully difficult to refuse."
“Let’s just say this: when Donald Trump decides he wants somebody on his team, he has an unlimited reservoir of resources that he can bring to bear,” King told POLITICO after Trump scored the backing of evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and anti-immigration hardliner Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
"One of them is money, but it may not be,” King said. “It might be fame, it might be the mystique of the Trump machine, it might be people are afraid of retribution and it might be people that are looking for opportunities down the line. And it might be any combination of those things and others that I haven’t said. That explains most of what you’ve seen come behind Donald Trump in one way or another.”
Cruz’s camp is scrambling to regain momentum as many polls show Trump with a substantial lead just six days until the Iowa caucuses. He and some on his team have started to try to lower expectations, and Cruz reportedly told pastors behind closed doors on Monday that Trump could be "unstoppable" if he wins Iowa and then follows that up with a victory in New Hampshire.
Enjoying his hefty lead, Trump has decided to skip the final GOP debate before the caucuses, holding a competing event instead -- a move no other candidate could make, as each needs more time to appeal to voters.
And his expanding roster of influential conservative supporters has come as a blow to Cruz’s team, whose strategy is based on the belief that the Texan could lock up the evangelical vote not only in Iowa but nationwide.
Trump dedicated a good portion of his Twitter energy on Tuesday to one of Cruz’s most connected and important supporters, Bob Vander Plaats, the CEO of the social conservative organization The Family Leader and also an Iowan.
"Why doesn't phony @bobvanderplaats tell his followers all the times he asked for him and his family to stay at my hotels-didn't like paying," Trump tweeted, following with,"@bobvanderplaats begged me to do an event while asking organizers for $100,000 for himself—a bad guy!" a couple hours later.
Vander Plaats was asked about the tweets by Wolf Blitzer on CNN Tuesday.
“That’s Trump being Trump, his friendship comes with strings," Vander Plaats said. “He was very insistent to me and my wife in regards to a couple times we went to New York. Make sure you stay at my place, I’ll put you up and all that. But what bothers him is I’m not willing to give him my endorsement over that. “
“I still consider Donald Trump a friend because my friendship doesn’t come with strings,” he added, saying that the attacks were a sign Trump was "desperate" because he "sees he's probably going to lose Iowa.” Vander Plaats wouldn't commit to voting for Trump if he is the Republican nominee.
To a standing-room only crowd in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Tuesday afternoon, Cruz came to Vander Plaats's defense.
"What I'd say to Donald, my friend Donald, if he wants to engage in insults, if he wants to engage in attacks, my advice to Donald is, stick with me," he said. "Because when you start vilifying and demonizing and attacking strong conservative leaders because they choose not to support you, that starts to communicate an awful lot to the men and women who are watching. Next thing you know, he's going to say the people of Iowa are stupid."
"He already did!" yelled someone in the crowd.
King earlier on Tuesday said he wasn't pointing to any specific instances in which Trump promised any exchange to procure an endorsement. But he said that as the head of a powerful conservative network in the state, he knows the kind of negotiations that go on.
“Who’s said no to Donald Trump when he’s really wanted their endorsement? Who’s said no? I can tell you different people that have,” he said, while declining to specifically say whether Trump had offered him anything. “Let me say that we’ve been involved in a network of politics in this state for a long time, we have an organizational reach, and a family organizational reach that goes out to many components of politics in Iowa. When there are proposals that are made, that are seeking to gather those endorsements, I sometimes have a pretty good idea of exactly what they are.”
A spokeswoman for Trump didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the ground here, Trump’s support appears to be growing. He is expected to again draw thousands to rallies in Marshalltown and Iowa City Tuesday evening.
Cruz spent Tuesday morning hosting smaller events—including one in an unheated barn in Osceola and one in a small but crowded restaurant in Albia, before encountering bigger crowds later in the day. As he made his closing arguments across the state, he urged the crowds to examine which candidates really had conservative records--an implicit knock on Trump, whom he has cast as a recent convert to conservatism--and asked that each person in attendance bring nine people out to caucus for him on Feb. 1.
“Iowa matters, this race is neck-and-neck, Donald Trump and I are tied," Cruz said in Ottumwa. "He may launch his attacks. I will not respond in kind, I will not denigrate him, I will not insult him. But the men and women in this room, the men and women of Iowa have the power to make the difference in the caucus. If every one of us brings nine additional people to come out Monday night, we will win the caucuses, win the primary and win the general election in November 2016."
Indeed, Cruz, who last week took swings at Trump at every turn during a trip through New Hampshire, appeared more restrained in his criticisms on Tuesday.
Many of the people who turned said that the barrage of attacks Cruz has faced, from everyone from Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to Trump, have only made them more interested in circling the wagons around him.
Still, some supporters are nervous about how the attacks might affect undecided voters. In particular, they say Branstad’s vocal opposition to Cruz over his opposition to an ethanol mandate that helps Iowa’s economy could hurt the Texan.
“The news media has built it up to where it’s a major obstacle for Cruz, and a lot of people aren’t that swift,” said Bob Taylor, a farmer from Woodburn, Iowa, who is not bothered by Cruz’s opposition to the ethanol mandate, noting he wants to phase it out over several years. “I think a lot of people in Iowa will fall for that.”
And sensing that opening, Marco Rubio, who has been stuck in a distant third-place position in recent polls, piled on when asked about the Texan Republican’s warning to conservative leaders that Trump could clinch the nomination if he takes Iowa.
“I think Ted is feeling a lot of pressure,” Rubio told reporters after an event in Marshalltown. “He’s obviously falling in the polls and losing to Donald and so he’ll say more and more things like that.”
The Florida Republican continued to make the case to voters and reporters that he is the only candidate who can unite the Republican base, expand its ranks and defeat Hillary Clinton.
“I feel very good about our team and the work they are putting in,” Rubio said, emphasizing that he plans to be in the race for the long haul despite no early state primary victory in sight.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/iowa-caucuses-cruz-trump-218252#ixzz3yT4lzfDW
