Yep, classic case of
Posted on 06/28/2006 1:45:44 PM PDT by Dane
WE LOST THE REFERENDUM
It was a landslide.
They had that referendum on illegal immigration yesterday and the answer was clear.
People don’t care.
I’m not saying that as a criticism, or as accusation, but as an observation. If yesterday’s Republican Primary in Utah’s third congressional district was a test of the country’s sentiment on illegal immigration, it is unarguably clear that people aren’t that bothered by it.
At least they’re not in Utah.
Congressman Chris Cannon pounded the living snot out of challenger John Jacob. It wasn’t even close. John Jacob lost in every county, jurisdiction and precinct. At no point did he lead in any category and every new report of results was more bad news. As I sat last night at the computer with his staffers, watching the results post on the Internet, it was clear that by the time 10 percent of the precincts had posted that the race was lost.
So I’ve got egg on my face.
I attacked Chris Cannon ruthlessly. I was John Jacob’s loudest and most passionate defender. His loss is also my loss. His failure to represent the interests of the people is also my failure to read the interests of the people. What I thought was important was clearly unimportant to the voters. And in a republic, the voters are always right.
It turns out that Salt Lake City’s two daily newspapers, and Provo’s newspaper, the state’s other talk-show host, and most of the state’s politicians were all more in touch with the sentiments of the Republicans in the Third District than I was. It is clear that their general liberalism is a better reflection of voter sentiment than my rabid conservatism.
And I should have known that. Instead, I was blinded by my desire to evangelize the world to my view of freedom – a decidedly conservative and Constitution-based view. But Utah is not a politically conservative state. It is dominated by the Republican Party, but not by conservative Republicans. The governor is a moderate to liberal, one senator is a moderate and the other is arguably a liberal. The last two governors were moderate to liberal and the attorney general is moderate to liberal.
Those are not accusatory labels, they are merely demonstrations of the consistently expressed will of the people. When Utahns go to the polls, they often pick moral conservatives, but rarely pick political conservatives. More typically they go for social liberals.
And they rarely go for political challengers from the right.
So, logically, John Jacob’s campaign was doomed from the beginning. And I should have known that. I probably did know that, but chose to ignore it, caught up in the talking-head argument that this was the time and place the people would rise up against government neglect of the border and acceptance of illegal immigration.
That argument made sense. This was the chance. It was the chance for conservatives in the Republican Party to call to account the ruling liberal wing of the party. But that is not what the voters wanted.
And that can’t be ignored.
If this was a referendum on illegal immigration, it seems the people want Senate over House, Kennedy over Tancredo. It seems that Chris Cannon’s 10 years of being the open-borders guy in the House is something the Republicans in Utah’s Third District wanted to reward.
Again, that is not an accusation. It is not bitterness. It is an observation. The landslide re-election of an incumbent is not a call for change – in that incumbent’s conduct or in the direction of his party. It is a ratification and approval of what they both have stood for.
George Bush and Vicente Fox won last night. It was a fair fight, I made the issue as clear as I could, and people chose what I wasn’t selling. Which is their right and the great beauty of our republic.
We tried to make our stand, and we got steamrollered. We can take comfort in knowing that we did our best, and we can seethe in the bitterness of knowing that it didn’t do any good. It was duty done, but pointlessly.
And I apologize for that. For taking up so much of your time with this issue. For being so passionate about something for which there is not a public enthusiasm. For being clearly out of touch with what Republicans want. For misreading the potential of this election.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that Chris Cannon won this primary by a larger margin than he won the primary two years ago. Last time’s $50,000 campaign did better than this time’s $700,000 campaign. And even that second figure is uncertain. It is possible that John Jacob’s campaign ran out of money a month ago, that it was underfunded. It is possible that John Jacob was a poor candidate.
But it is also irrelevant.
In his concession remarks – he bypassed a prepared speech – John Jacob said that the results of the election showed that Chris Cannon has support in Washington.
Actually, that’s not right.
The results showed that Chris Cannon has support in the Third District.
His constituents have known him for a decade and they seem overwhelmingly to like him and what he does. The referendum failed. It’s business as usual – business with which the voters seem completely content.
If this primary was an opening battle in the war to bring the Republican Party back to its conservative roots, we got massacred. And that will be noticed and have consequences. We conservatives hoped to show momentum and strength and didn’t. And we may have hurt our cause substantially as a result. Opposition to illegal immigration has been hurt, and so has the attempt to chastise the party. We fell flat on our face, and to the winner go the spoils.
Politics is like baseball. When you lose, you congratulate the winner and walk off the field.
Chris Cannon won because he represented what people want. He won the election. He deserves congratulations.
I vote they be designated "Utahrds" from here on.
When folks have to blame their loss on a President who is about as popular as Herpes it doesn't say much for the quality of their message.
Sorry, I don't respond to Dane's posts. He's insignificant and headed for disappointment.
"Jacobs was weak"
Take out a few of Jacobs statements (i.e Satan) A 3-4% Gain
Take out The President and First Lady's Involvement A 3-4% Gain
You have a different ending
The delusional are the people on this forum who (quoting Lou Dobbs) "consider a 5 time Congressman who won a primary by fewer than seven thousand votes", a barometer for the Nation.
sw
"sure everyone is fully aware of just what a disastrous mistake it would be to allow its passing:
Why do u think Arlen "Scottish Law" Specter is now wanting to talk about borders first?
We have already heard some of contents of this bill (i.e. Notifly Mexico First, Amnesty. etc.
However when all the shams are exposed in the light of day if will disgust americans. And the GOP Senators who voted for it know it. Thats why they are moving toward the house bill. To keep it from seeing the light of day.
Give me a break, I wasn't born yesterday, as lou dobbs seems to think.
I find interesting that Dane called those of us who wanted to see a borders first win from Jacob, losers in another post is from the Great BLUE STATE OF PA.
PA hasn't seen RED since Reagan. Talk about losers.
Hey, wait...it was only yesterday. I guess the referendum didn't go that well.
You should check out the Pa. board. You'd think that Santorum is to the left of Stalin.
Hey, wait...it was only yesterday. I guess the referendum didn't go that well.
Amamzing isn't. Unfortunately I think Rush is on that same bandwagon. he didn't mention the loss of the referendum today.
He has become weiner(savage) lite since I guess he thinks he is taking away some of his listeners, but if Jacob had won, I think rush would have led off his show with that.
Hey Rush, being savage lite may get you listeners, but it doesn't win elections.
The tancredo/bay buchanan ads probably ran during Rush's, Hannity's, and savage's shows and it still didn't make a difference in the results.
Probably a big ego blow to Rush, Hannity, and weiner(savage).
I was an avid Limbaugh listener in his early days. Where we lived they broadcast him twice a day; there was a second broadcast in the evening. His first couple of years he was more entertaining and even readily admitted he was first and foremost an entertainer. Then along came Contract with America and accolades to him and his head kind of expanded. He eventually came back down to earth but he's not as entertaining as in the early days.
The Senate is already feeling the heat. Do not be fooled.
Uh no when a political PAC decides to make a referendum out of a primary race and finds a wealthy person to run and the PAC puts $50,000 of it's own money into the race, gets massive local and national publicity about the race and then loses bigtime.
Plus the turnout was very low(i.e tancredo/bay buchanan decided to hold an immigration referendum and nobody came).
These guys sound like the liberals when Zarqawi was killed. "He wasn't important anyway"
Tell that to the tancredo/bay buchanan PAC, they were the ones who were publicizing it as such and they lost bigtime.
Yep, classic case of
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