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By law, super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with the candidate they are supporting. They can hire ad makers and run television ads on their own, as long as they don't talk to the candidate about the ads. However, running ads doesn't work in Iowa, where the voters want to meet the candidate in person. So, Ron DeSantis' super PAC Never Back Down has chartered a bus to drive through Iowa. The organizers are crossing their fingers that DeSantis will see the bus by accident and decide to go for a ride on it, all without coordinating with him. It's quite the gamble.
DeSantis has an odd problem. His campaign is running out of money and he had to fire about 10 people. But his super PAC has over $100 million it can spend on ads, etc. But again, ads don't work in Iowa, hence the scheme for the super PAC to charter a bus and hope DeSantis accidentally stumbles upon it and gets in. It would be a pity if he missed the bus.
Apparently someone in the campaign or super PAC has noticed that DeSantis is rapidly sinking out of sight and they have to do something fast. In Iowa, that means retail campaigning, which he is not good at, although his wife is not bad at it. His team there said that they're not panicked by the state of DeSantis' campaign. That may or may not be true, since the latest poll puts Trump at 46% and DeSantis at 16% in Iowa. That's a 30-point gap. In addition, Scott is nipping at DeSantis' heels at 11%.
The bus schedule starts with: Leave Des Moines July 27 in the morning and get to Chariton at 12:30 for an event. Then a town hall in Osceola at 6:45 p.m., and on to Oskaloosa for meet-and-greet at 12:30 p.m. the next day. All of the events will be paid for by the super PAC, which is probably illegal. The super PAC has 21 full-time paid staff in Iowa and they have knocked on 200,000 doors so far. If the staffers are more user-friendly than the candidate, that might work. As long as they can keep the candidate away from the voters, the plan might be viable. In effect, the super PAC is running the campaign, which is definitely illegal if there is any coordination with the candidate. (V)