The Counter Establishment is now nearly as financially flush and institutionally entrenched as the mainstream establishment. Cruz has been able to tap into it to raise gobs of money. In the third quarter, Cruz raised $12.2 million, about twice what rival Marco Rubio raised over the same period. His super PACs raised $31 million in the few weeks of his campaign, largely from hedge fund manager Robert Mercer. He’s had fund-raisers hosted by Joseph Konzelmann, a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
.. As Eliana Johnson of National Review put it, the paradox of Cruz is that “The man who boasts of his ideological purity is perhaps the most obviously tactical candidate.”
.. Ted Cruz is surging as the figurehead of the rich and interlocked Counter Establishment. And he gets to do it while pretending that he is antiestablishment. That’s a nice trick. Even a Machiavellian one.
Wary of Donald Trump, G.O.P. Leaders Are Caught in a Standoff
Two of the most potent financial networks in Republican politics, that of the hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and another led by the industrialists Charles G. and David H. Koch, have each had preliminary conversations about beginning an anti-Trump campaign, according to strategists involved. But Mr. Trump has already mocked Mr. Singer and the Kochs, and officials linked to them said they were reluctant to incur more ferocious counterattacks.
The G.O.P. Establishment Has a Big New Hampshire Problem
The large number of moderate, establishment-friendly candidates competing in New Hampshire might split the mainstream vote, preventing any one candidate from consolidating enough support to win.
.. But there are other dangers, too, like the possibility that a relatively moderate candidate, like Mr. Kasich, could finish above mainstream candidates who are more acceptable to the establishment.
.. The best case for the establishment, of course, would be if a mainstream candidate won the state and became the clear favorite of party elites in the process, but a strong second-place showing by an acceptable candidate would probably suffice. A strong second place for a candidate acceptable to the party would winnow the moderate wing of the field and position that candidate to ultimately consolidate party support and take a lead later in the primary season.
In Volatile Phase, Republican Establishment Looks Weak
there have been fewer endorsements from party officials at this point than in any previous Republican primary.
That’s not because of an abundance of riches; it’s because the candidates who could plausibly be acceptable to party elites have big flaws and have done little to earn the support of the party or voters. All are faring poorly in the polls. Jeb Bush, Mr. Rubio and John Kasich have not clearly breached 10 percent nationally or in any of the early states.
They have other weaknesses, too. Mr. Rubio may be broadly acceptable, but his fund-raising tallies and overall campaign effort have been surprisingly limited. Mr. Kasich may be unacceptable to much of the party’s conservative wing, and his fund-raising isn’t impressive, either. Mr. Bush has healthier fund-raising tallies — though apparently not healthy enough to forestall big cuts in his campaign operation — but very weak favorability ratings.
.. Over all, no party establishment in the modern era has found itself in so weak a position at this stage in a contest.
.. In recent contests, the Republican elite has found a welcome ally in the well-educated, secular, blue-state Republicans — particularly those in New Hampshire — who have rolled their eyes at the preferred candidate of the Iowa caucuses.