Trump gets super PAC help in Wisconsin ahead of primary

WASHINGTON – An outside group is rushing to support Donald Trump’s Republican presidential bid, including in next-to-vote Wisconsin.

Great America PAC, a super political action committee, will spend at least $1 million on commercials to air across the country in coming weeks, its spokesman Jesse Benton said.

One ad promotes Trump as a “unifier” and shows images from his mega-rallies. A second commercial says Trump will be far tougher than GOP rival Ted Cruz. It begins with a woman saying, “Sure I get some grief when I say I’m voting for Donald Trump. You know what? I want to protect my family.”

Trump has called super PACs corrupt and insisted he does not want their help. Benton said the Trump campaign has not asked Great America to cease its work.

Benton did not say how much money great America would spend specifically in Wisconsin, where voters go to the polls on Tuesday.

Trump is being drastically outspent on the airwaves there. His campaign has a $427,000 ad buy, compared to the $3.8 million that Cruz, John Kasich and GOP groups backing them are spending in Wisconsin, advertising tracker Kantar Media’s CMAG shows.

The group noted just over $1 million in TV expenditures in a report filed this week with the Federal Election Commission. Those documents show about $10,000 designated for Wisconsin; national ad buys appear to make up the rest.

Great America is preparing to be a major force in the election, Benton said. In addition to advertising, the group is building a data and polling program that aims first to help Trump amass friendly delegates in case of a contested Republican convention this summer, Benton said.

Trump’s campaign is also beginning to do that kind of work.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Benton said. “And part of what we want to do is convince Republicans to see the energy and enthusiasm around Donald Trump as a positive thing.”