Nov.03

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Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Nancy Mace: Now and Then

Do you remember a time—say, 4 weeks ago—when Nancy Mace seemed to be a basically normal member of Congress? And do you sense she's rapidly turned into a very different person since then, like she's been replaced by a fire-breathing look-alike? If you feel that way, you're not alone. And yesterday, The Daily Beast shed a fair bit of light on the situation.

Specifically, someone who serves (or served) in Mace's office leaked a copy of a 2021 strategy memo written by Mace, and a current internal handbook for the Representative's office, also written by Mace. From these two documents, as well as interviews with former staffers, come the following bits of information:

• Mace has consciously branded herself as "National Nancy" and, having commenced her House career in 2021, as "THE freshman thought leader on federal issues."
  
  
• Mace allocates one-third of her $1.5 million office budget to "marketing." Most House members do not have a "marketing" budget, and even if they have that under a different name, they don't spend one out of every three dollars they have on it.
  
  
• Staffers are required to book Mace on national TV 1-3 times per day, and a minimum of nine times a week, in addition to a minimum of six local TV appearances per week.
  
  
• Mace used to be open to appearances on all channels, and as part of that, she was willing to talk about/lament the 1/6 insurrection. More recently, she cut CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC off the list, and told her staff to limit bookings to mostly "Newsmax, OANN, and the various Fox networks." There is no more talk about 1/6.
  
  
• Mace's communications director is expected to send out at least one press release every day, which is a very high frequency for a representative, or even a senator.
  
  
• Mace evinces relatively little interest in legislating, excepting legislation that gets her some attention. She's only gotten two bills passed by the House. The first was the Modernizing the Acquisition of Cybersecurity Experts Act (Get it? MACE Act) and did not become law. The second renamed a post office in South Carolina, and did become law.

That explains why, whenever Mace has a thought—any thought, really—we all hear about it. But what's with the extremist turn in the past month or so? Why did she go from voting like a disciple of then-speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to voting like a Freedom Caucuser?

The answer to that question is pretty obvious: Mace is angling for the #2 slot on the Trump ticket. She knows he's leaning toward a female running mate, and she also knows that the other contenders have liabilities, so she's making a move to cozy up to the former president. Quite a few folks who know her say that her votes against McCarthy and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), in particular, were cast with an eye toward getting TV appearances that would be seen by Trump, and not out of any particular convictions.

In case there were any doubts about this theory, Mace was on The Daily Show this week (which, as a Comedy Central program, is therefore not broadcast on CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC). And when guest host Charlamagne tha God asked her about the possibility of being Trump's running mate, she described the notion as "intriguing." That is not only far removed from the Full Sherman, it's also exactly what you would say if you were interested, but you also knew that the fellow making the decision does not like people who are over eager (see Lake, Kari).

And so we have another entrant into the GOP VP sweepstakes. And that person could turn out to be very important if they're the only person on the ticket who can campaign because they're the only person on the ticket who is not in prison. (Z)