Musgrave Fundraising Letter Says She Expects "Little Or No" NRCC Help In '08

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's (R-Colo.) campaign can "expect little or no help" from the national Republican Party this year, according to a purported Musgrave fundraising letter released by her Democratic opponent on Tuesday.

The letter was dated March 12, just five days after Musgrave manager Jason Thielman told a Loveland online news site the campaign had "absolutely no concerns" about NRCC funding.

"Top Republican officials in Washington have told me to expect little or no help from the party this year," stated the letter, sent to supporters and released by the Betsy Markey campaign. 

"The National Republican Campaign Committee is falling further behind the Democrats every month," the letter continued. "And with the most expensive Presidential campaign in history looming, the Republican Party is just too tapped out to spend money on the 'smaller races' like ours."

The NRCC spent $1.8 million on Musgrave's 2006 race, in which she narrowly prevailed with 46 percent of the vote.

But this year, the NRCC has fallen on funding woes, starting 2008 with only $5.5 million -- about a sixth of what the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee started the year with. In addition, the NRCC spent $1.2 million on Jim Oberweis' failed special election campaign in Illinois' 14th Congressional District.

Markey manager Anne Caprara said a Markey supporter received the Musgrave fundraising letter and forwarded it to the Markey campaign.

Thielman, reached by phone early Tuesday afternoon, asked to be e-mailed a request for comment. He did not immediately respond to the subsequent e-mail.

But in an interview with the Loveland Connection earlier this month, Thielman "said the NRCC funding was a non-issue."

“There are absolutely no concerns on our part,” he told the publication.

Marilyn Musgrave fundraising letter, March 12, 2008

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