Rove's Fundraising Group Pulls In Just $200

Remember that big scary “shadow RNC” Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie cooked up to lure the big GOP donors scared off by Michael Steele? It’s not going so well. The group, dubbed American Crossroads, raised just $200 last month, according to a report filed with the IRS—and no, that figure isn’t missing any zeros. Since launching in March, it’s raised $1.25 million, putting it just a bit behind in its quest to raise $52 million this year.

The big donors simply haven’t materialized, Politico explains—in fact, it’s actually been a bigger boon for Democrats, who use it as a bogeyman in their fundraising appeals. But American Crossroads isn’t worried, its president says. “We spent our first six weeks building a structure that our donors want to see in place,” he says, “and now we are at the stage where the checks will begin catching up.” (More Karl Rove stories.)