Coats is Clear

The American Spectator ^ | May 5, 2010 | W. James Antle, III

[rmlew]

In Indiana's Republican primary for U.S. Senate, conservative insurgents got more votes than the GOP establishment. There was only one small problem: the party establishment had just one candidate in the race while the conservatives split their votes between four.

[rmlew]

As a supporter of Rep. John Hostettler, I'm, disappointed. There is something to be said for runoffs.

[Clump]

A runoff should be a no brainer here. Very sad this opportunity in Indiana was blown so badly.

[Patrick1]

Still have to vote for Coats with the socialists on the march. Better half a loaf than none.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Let me guess - all four of the conservatives billed themselves as “the Tea Party candidate,” right?

That’s why the Tea Parties need to work with conservatives WITHIN the GOP - to take over the party, use its organisational structure, and toss out the establishment RINOs.

[rmlew]

I think only two were "Tea Party Candidate" (TM no one).
4 Conservatives of varying quality and one establishment type. I really think thatwe need conservative primaries in most states for the RIGHJT candidate in the general primary and in presidential primaries.
I'm just happy that McCain has one clear opponent. I'd hate to seem him win.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Yeah, the problem is that before any changes to the system itself can be made, the power structure of the GOP first has to be wrestled away from the RINOs and county-club establishment types who always seem to manage to worm their way into positions of power.

That’s the problem here in the 4th congressional district of North Carolina. In our primary yesterday, we ended up seeing a Ron Paulian RINO win (barely) over the real conservative, largely for two reasons:

1) Lawson (the Paulistinian) was able to self-finance, thereby buying the election, and

2) the Wake county GOP establishment, which is pretty much RINO to its core, was stumping for him big time.

Here in Orange (which, ironically and despite having Chapel Hill in it, is a very conservative Party organisation), we were pushing for Frank Roche, and we ended up taking the county for Roche pretty handily (Lawson won it in 2008). But because Wake is the biggest county in the district by far, the RINOs there are able to control a lot of the media access to the race, direct press releases, control debate formats, etc.

[Falcon28]

There was only one small problem: the party establishment had just one candidate in the race while the conservatives split their votes between four.

Conservatives need to wake up fast. We're running too many candidates for the same seat. We end up knocking each other off and allowing the RINO to take the nom. Hostettler didn't even bother campaigning and raised, what, $30,000 in 2010? He should have dropped out weeks ago and endorsed the conservative front-runner. Same thing happened in Illinois. Too many conservatives on the ballot and now we're stuck with uber-RINO Mark Kirk. When will Republicans wake up?