Posted on 11/11/2014 3:34:08 PM PST by right-wing agnostic
The 2014 election is over! And, before the 2016 presidential race begins in earnest -- oh, who are we kidding, that's already happened -- we wanted to give out some Fix superlatives for the best (and worst) of the 2014 campaign. Today kicks off the Fix's award season with our pick for the best candidate of the cycle. Tomorrow, we "award" the worst candidate.
First, the nominees (in alphabetical order by last name):
* Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia Senate)
* Joni Ernst (Iowa Senate)
* Al Franken (Minnesota Senate)
* Cory Gardner (Colorado Senate)
* Ed Gillespie (Virginia Senate)
* Mitch McConnell (Kentucky Senate)
* Michelle Nunn (Georgia Senate)
* Scott Walker (Wisconsin governor)
Looking at the list, it's immediately apparent that Senate Republicans did an outstanding job of recruiting this cycle. Capito ran one of the best campaigns in a non-competitive race in the country. McConnell was, as usual, outstanding. Gillespie came from nowhere to almost upset the single most popular politician in Virginia. And Ernst is a rising national star. But, when you look at the totality of the campaign, it's clear that Cory Gardner was the single best candidate of the 2014 election.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Even though he lost, Ed Gillespie was the best candidate, ran the best campaign.
Scott Walker was also awesome.
Concur.
Concur.
Cillizza is a bleeding heart liberal. Everything he writes is filtered through a leftist prism, so nothing he say has any claim to reality.
Bingo! Walker is my new favorite!
Walker, considering how they were so after him... he keeps rising to the top... and Joni Ernst...
I agree. Walker has weathered a whole h of a lot.
“Even though he lost, Ed Gillespie was the best candidate, ran the best campaign.”
Too bad he didn’t get the $$$
They did not mention Cotton from Arkansas who gave the buffoon Pryor a 17 point trouncing. My favorites, Cotton and Ernst.
Cory ran a heck of a campaign, very disciplined and on message. He totally defeated the war on women b.s. and in fact turned it around on “Senator Uterus.”
All things being equal,I prefer a governor to a member of congress. Given that, few are the equal of Scott Walker.
There were lots of great candidates this year. Two local ones hail from Maryland. Larry Hogan smacked and crushed his Democrat, sitting Lt. Governor chosen one opponent into the dirt in a stunning landslide.
Dan Bongino, while not successful ran a textbook campaign and came within a couple thousand votes of vanquishing a Democrat Congressman in a gerrymandered district designed especially for him.
Using his experience as a former Secret service agent, Bongino garnered a national level of respect and recognition. Alas, he’s a district over so I couldn’t vote for him.
Did I say gerrymandered? I’m sorry, I meant vomited on a wall and drew circles around it. That’s how poorly they define districts here in the PRM. (People’s Republic of Maryland)
I see Cornyn isn’t on the list. I’m not even sure he ran a campaign. Did he take up golf or something?
I saw Capito on Fox News Sunday. I thought she came across very well - what sounded like genuine and well thought out answers. Then they had Gardner on there. He sounded like the typical weasel-mouthed politician giving the same old RINO scripted responses.
Scott Walker is the pit bull of politics. No one else had to fight three elections in three years, defying the polls, and winning them all.
Scott Walker!
And he never looked like he broke a sweat -- calm, cool, a gentleman through and through. When Debbie Wasserman Schultz came out with her ridiculous charge that "Scott Walker gave women the back of his had; he's pulling them by the hair and dragging them back..." I think that statement won the election for him right there, it was so over the top.
Everybody stopped listening to the Dems.
All he had to do was stand there and look stupid.
Real easy for him.
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