Who Is Fred Tausch?

Mostly via the blogging of Jim Geraghty, I’d become intrigued by Fred Tausch, a wealthy conservative in New Hampshire who has spent $400,000 on advertisements and direct mail attacking government spending and Democrats. I called Tausch’s office two weeks ago for an interview when I was reporting this piece about Republicans running against the stimulus, but I got a brush-off. The Concord Monitor reveals why:

Tausch has been reluctant to talk about much beyond his thoughts on government. He has not responded to multiple interview requests from the Monitor in recent weeks; his staffers didn’t even respond to requests to confirm information about him. Tausch reportedly also avoided talking to a reporter from Union Leader this month.

Tausch has actually been able to buy lots of free, uncritical media attention; see this Wall Street Journal column that suggests Tausch would be a good U.S. Senate candidate based solely on his willingness to spend money to yell to voters about spending. But Tausch seems pretty politically naive — he was a Mike Gravel supporter, for some reason — and his messaging consists of stuff like “Imagine it: the same people who were in charge of responding to Hurricane Katrina could soon be making health care decisions for you—with your tax dollar.” If Tausch represents anything, it’s a small strain of the electorate who voted for Barack Obama because they were angry about deficits. Not exactly a surging political movement, but buy enough ads and you can get covered that way.