Porter to get extra help from party fundraising

By Lisa Mascaro

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | 10:48 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Roll Call reports today that the House Minority Leader, John Boehner of Ohio, has organized the Republican Party in Nevada and seven other states into a joint fundraising committee for targeted House races — including that of Republican Rep. Jon Porter.

Boehner’s foray into the races comes as his congressional campaign arm has taken heat for its performance this year.

The House Minority Leader will lead the fundraising effort, with the proceeds being spent on get-out-the-vote efforts in the targets races.

A Republican National Committee spokeswoman said the venture will provide a “useful tool to help turn out voters this November.”

“This is a great program,” RNC spokeswoman Karen Hanretty told the paper.

Porter is among Republicans threatened this fall due in part to increased Democratic voters in his suburban Henderson district. He faces one of his strongest opponents yet in state Sen. Dina Titus, the former senate minority leader who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006. Registered Democrats now overpower Republicans in a district that had been narrowly split.

Getting Republican voters to the polls will be crucial to Porter’s re-election effort, and Republicans have long had a sophisticated voter turn-out infrastructure.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told the paper that “it is not surprising Mr. Boehner would look at alternative ways to raise millions from big oil and other similar special interests.”