Gary Johnson SuperPAC Launching Huge CNN, Fox Ad Buy

PurplePAC, a SuperPAC run by Cato Institute co-founder Edward Crane, will be launching a TV promoting the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson on Friday.

The ad is intended to air 25 times on CNN and 25 times on Fox, from this Friday until Monday.

The theme of the ad, from an early copy I’ve seen, is that Donald Trump is too offensive, that Hillary Clinton wants higher taxes and bigger government (both supported via clips of the major party’s candidates) and that “America deserves better.”

Johnson is said in the ad to be for “tolerance, free enterprise, and a sane foreign policy.” He wants “government that stays out of your pocketbook, and out of the bedroom.”

CNN reporting on the ad buy said it will cost $1 million, and notes the official campaign has done no TV ad buys yet. (I reported earlier today on aspects of the official campaign’s financials.)

The $1 million for the ad buy, I’m told, is coming from Jeff Yass, an options trader and one of the founders of Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group.

Yass had previously been generously supporting Rand Paul SuperPACs. He’d given six figures to America’s Liberty PAC, $300,000 to Concerned American Voters, and a previous million to PurplePAC last year when it was still supporting Rand Paul in his Republican primary.