Posted on 03/04/2008 6:07:38 PM PST by oblomov
UPDATE 8:36: Ron Paul has been re-elected to Congress in the Fourteenth District of Texas.
Campaign manager Mark Elam: "Chris Peden is toast. It's just a question of how big the margin is."
The campaign is looking at a result in line with its final internal polls, with about 70 percent of the vote going to Paul.
With about 8,400 votes in, Paul is leading Peden 72-28.
UPDATE 8:53: These are early votes being reported right now, but around 40 to 50 percent of votes were cast in early voting and the Paul campaign doesn't expect the election day results to diverge. Brazoria County, which casts the plurality of TX-14 votes, is going 72-28 for Paul and 16 percent for him in the presidential race. Fort Bend County is Peden's stronghold, going only 60-40 for Paul.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Ron Paul: 10,569
Chris Peden: 4,913
Total votes: 15,482
Most overhyped failed congressional primary challenger ever.
Good, we need dissenting voices within the party, even if they can be a bit extreme at times.
Let freedom ping.
Congratulations to Ron Paul!
Rwned
Wouldn’t want Paul as CinC, but I can definitely live with him in congress.
Some fresh blood with his (fairly conservative - regardless of his neocon support) alignment would be welcome. Why not aim for the 16th district nomination in the hopes of being the candidate to take that seat from the rats for the second time in 100 years?
I will admit I have grown to like Ron Paul over the course of this campaign, after ridiculing him in the beginning. His views on fiscal conservatism and the failure of the profligate Federal Reserve have been spot on.
Huzzah!
Ahh..nothing like winning.
Yeah, but the sore losers still have their panties in a wad about Dr. Paul and his actual Conservative, CONSTITUTIONAL positions. They need to get over it and get a life.
As a big tent Republican, I see this as good news.
Still making wild-assed false personal attacks on fellow-Freepers, I see....
The White House?
ROFLMAO
what was personal about my so-called attack?
Don’t be obtuse...no one else will notice.
“Most overhyped failed congressional primary challenger ever.”
I’ll wait until the gravitically challenged estrogen enhanced person vocalizes, if it’s all the same to you.
But that said, I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get to see anymouse STFU about this little turd who wasted a ton of money attacking a good conservative instead of using that cash against a lefty. What a complete jackass Peden is.
I’d like to imagine his GOP resume is now toast, but we can be sure the TxRNC will now figure out some payoff to Peden for being their anti-Paul hitman. Maybe they’ll run him for Keeton Strayhorn Jingleheimer Schmidt’s job...would be an even trade, jackass for jackass.
again, what was personal about my so-called attack?
Just FYI, most of the GOP establishment as well as former Bush campaign staff were behind Chris Peden.
http://blog.case.edu/james.chang/2008/02/24/puppet_chris_peden_influenced_by_kathy_haigler
http://www.patrickruffini.com/2008/02/15/yes-we-can-give-ron-paul-the-boot
It seems to me like some GOPers are trying to purge the party of the anti-war conservatives, no matter what sort of crap candidate they intend as the replacement.
The RNC won’t get another dime from me. Only individual conservatives will.
“It seems to me like some GOPers are trying to purge the party of the anti-war conservatives, no matter what sort of crap candidate they intend as the replacement. The RNC won’t get another dime from me. Only individual conservatives will.”
Easy enough to vote third party in the Presidential slot when the RINONC anoints a Dole-McCain-Ford type, easy enough to work for conservatives in the local races when you don’t have to worry about promoting the GOP’s standard bearer. With you 100%.
Agreed, I didn’t like him at all at first, but once I saw past his stance on Iraq I realized he was a real conservative, and that McCain/Romney/Huckabee/Giuliani were nothing but flip-flopping RINOs. Unfortunately Paul along with two other conservatives Thompson and Hunter all ended up as flat pancakes after the RINO bus drove through.
He hasn’t been re-elected, he has only won the primary.
It’s a “safe” Republican seat. Last time around, the Dems didn’t put up a sacrificial lamb to be beaten by Paul, and there’s no reason to expect they will run someone this time. If they do, that person will lose. Paul will be back in Congress.
Me too. I think he is right about more stuff than he is wrong about.
Paul is in.
If Peden would've won, then he would have run against Dem. Shane Sklar in the general election.
Sklar got beaten like a drum (61%-39%) last time in 2006 by Ron Paul, -- the same year the Republicans got hammered and lost the House and the Senate.
Ain't gonna happen.
Hate him or not, Paul has got it.
Actually, it's not.
Democrat Greg Laughlin had it in 1994, and then flipped to the Republican side. Newt Gingrich & Gov. George W. Bush campaigned hard for Laughlin in 1996. ... but Paul won.
Ron Paul ran unopposed in 2004. But went against Dem. Shane Sklar in 2006. (61%-39% -- winner again, Paul)
I am a Ron Paul supporter and do not doubt that he will win the General election, but he only won a primary last night, he wasn't re-elected.
I am sure that is true, but he hadn't been elected, he had won a primary.
You can say that because he won the primary, his re-election is assured.
That’s right, I had forgotten about that Sklar guy. Didn’t Laughlin switch parties in response to redrawing the district and cutting out D sections?
I'm glad you have come around.
If only he had posited a slightly modified stance on invading other countries, he might have won the nomination.
Ron Paul OWNED all the other issues, some of which FReepers claimed were "non-negotiable" in the beginning.
How many times at the start did we read about abortion was absolutely #1?
Or what ever happened to thf issue of illegal invasion and our wide-open borders? Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter, even though they were only one-issue candidates, had a very good one.
Then many times here we read about various other issues, such as; gun (NOT) control, jobs moving offshore, inflation, the up-coming North American Union, and more.
I find it extremely informative regarding the makeup of the Republican Party that none of those seem to matter anymore.
Instead, we have somehow morphed into being terrified of some turd-world rag-heads with a death wish of their own.
Since when does the world's "only remaing super-power" run scared $hi#L@@$ from some crazed lunatics who can't master 20th century technology, and can't even run their own countries?
Oh, well, we can at least say we tried.
That was my question exactly. What a waste of time and money going after the most consistent small-government advocate in DC.
What was Peden thinking? moron.
Please see my #39. Thanks.
I can't speak for Peden, but IMO, he had some supporters who simply wanted Ron Paul out.
That morphing is all part of the globalist plan. The otherwise good conservatives who go along with it are just useful idiots of the near-left.
Yeah, that's right. You Paul bashers heard me right.
Bump for that!
I have been sickened by the willingness of the GOP to jetisson almost every other issue just to maintain an appearance of party unity on the issue of the war. I’m not anti-war, but I think it’s a reasonable and honorable position for a conservative to take.
The garrison state is a necessary part of the welfare state. As a conservative, I’m against solving problems by central planning and brute force. A military action to depose some tinpot dictator may be necessary, but wars for democracy or other abstract ideals are exactly what the Founders counseled against. We don’t need wars on radical Islam anymore than we need wars on drugs or poverty.
One of the greatest crises facing us is the steady erosion of our liberties. If we make this country into one not worth defending, then what’s the point of any war?
Hmm, I wonder why mnehrling didn’t post this sooner. I mean he was so quick with Peden boosting threads when he thought Peden would blow Paul out of the water . . .
It’s Orwellian.
Like you, I understand the nature of radical Islam- but to use it as a wedge issue which divides us from our Constitution, no way.
Bump for being against war for the sake of war.
In the end, it was not the MSM that did Paul in, but the hostility of the conservative secular and religious media combined with his campaign's failure to emphasize those areas, such as limiting the powers of the Feds and restoring economic freedom, where he was far better than most of the rest of the field.
lol, Penden who?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.