Vice President Dick Cheney gave an estimated $200,000 boost today to the campaign coffers of Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, one of the original sponsors of a gay marriage ban who is considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable incumbents.
Musgrave has proved “to be exactly the right person for the job,” Cheney told a crowd of about 200 people who paid $500 to $4,000 to attend the downtown Denver luncheon.
Musgrave’s campaign fund had about $422,000 in cash as of March 31, the end of the first quarter, said Guy Short, her chief of staff.
Before Cheney’s speech, Republican National Committeeman Bob Shaffer told the crowd the national party will spend whatever is necessary to help Musgrave win a third term in her northeastern Colorado district.
She has not said whether she will seek re-election next year.
Musgrave recently was named as one of 10 beneficiaries of the Retain Our Majority Program, a political action committee created by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in 1999 to help protect GOP incumbents expected to face tough re-election battles.
In 2002, Musgrave beat Democrat Stan Matsunaka, a former state Senate president, by 13 percentage points, but her winning margin against Matsunaka last year dipped to about half that.
