Posted on 10/08/2009 7:28:34 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) lashed out at conservative Republican colleagues during a meeting on Capitol Hill Wednesday when asked why the NRCC chose to back liberal, ACORN supported candidate Dede Scozzafava, in the upcoming special election to succeed Rep. John McHugh in New York's 23rd Congressional District
Sessions was called out by conservative members of the caucus, and challenged when asked why NRCC resources -- cash and personnel -- were being used for Scozzafava. "We have a conservative running in this race, and the Republican Party is not with him," says a conservative House member who attended the meeting. "There are a number of us who are profoundly embarrassed by this race, and while we don't blame Pete, we do blame the NRCC staff for apparently not doing its job."
Scozzafava's candidacy is getting so much attention because a conservative Republican, Doug Hoffman, is now challenging her, running as the New York Conservative Party candidate in the race. Hoffman was rejected by the Republican Party of New York, which chose not to contact Conservative Party leader Michael Long for input on the pick. Such input is usually sought, to ensure that the Republican candidate will also be able to run on the Conservative Party line on the ballot.
Hoffman has already been endorsed by the Club for Growth, Gary Bauer, and former Sen. Fred Thompson.
Regardless of the outcome of the race, it appears that looking to 2010, Rep. Pete Sessions will be examining the staff of the NRCC and making changes to ensure that a Scozzafava doesn't happen again.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
“The NRCC tried to put a Soros backed candidate in the Republican primary in my race.”
Names please. Lets get specific, this can be blogged about, raised, and the stinkers exposed. Is that person running? If not, who is running in CD-17?
” They care about money and little else.”
when it comes to defeating Chet Edwards, well they should care about money!
Chet will have $2 million cash on hand. HE BUYS RE-ELECTION EVERY TIME. How does he do it. HE LIES. He uses his good old boy schick and the pandering earmarks to buy votes. He will turn his opponent into some charicature of conservatism. he will use the $2 million warchest to flood the airwaves with his lies.
If you dont have a big-money campaign, you WILL be toast.
Rob Curnock did a very good job last time, he was outspent 20 to 1 and got within 8 points ... BUT HE STILL LOST. Chet lied about Curnock’s support for Fair Tax. Chet will say your support of FairTax means you want a HUGE sales tax on everyone in the district and call that ‘higher taxes’. Go figure. The more strong conservative views you present, the more ‘targets’ Chet will have to paint you as an ‘extremist’.
“It’s about getting self-financed candidates and the NRCC is willing to sacrifice principle to do so.”
Yes, they care about electability and too often they translate that into money-raising. They cant judge the other qualities of a candidate until after the race has happened. In CD-17 the question is - how can a conservative win enough of Waco from Chet? Chet wins that 2 to1 even though the town is supposed to be conservative.
If it’s between a very-conservative who will lose and a sort-of conservative who will beat Chet, yes the NRCC will do that.
Yes, they screw up using the money metric - bad candidates like Van Taylor, just because he had a million dollars, over better candidates. Only proves that money is not the main thing - being a good candidate is.
HOWEVER, I get back to my other point. Money is not sufficient to defeat Chet but it IS necessary. If you can’t raise 6 figures ON YOUR OWN, you cant win.
“I am the most conservative candidate running in TX17.”
Who else is running? Is Curnock running again? What about Sen Ogden, has he jumped in? How big is the field?
Inquiring and blogging minds would like to know.
BTW, nice website!
http://www.timothyforcongress.com
“Sessions isn’t a socialist. He either seems to think winning is more important than winning with the right candidate, or he hasn’t been paying attention, or both.”
Rep Sessions is a great conservative.
I put my money on him getting chumped by his own staff and by the stupid RINO shills in upstate New York who endorsed Fuzzy-skava or Skuzzy-favor or whoever it is.
Nah ... take a long-term perspective ... The Republican party was in much greater disrepair in the mid 1930s - zero ideas, zero charisma, zero influence - and in the mid 1970s.
The outcome for the country in both cases wasnt good - bad economic policies that extended economic malaise. But the GOP did eventually come back on the strength of leaders with ideas.
So it will happen here as well. The pendulum will swing back, and the pace of it depends on how fast or slow principled leaders are in stepping forward.
‘No, I have never advocated voting third party in earlier elections—with the sole exception of when I was living in NY and occasionally voted for the Conservative candidate when, as in this instance, the Republican candidate was simply insupportable.”
This happened in NY in the 1960s and 1970s. Buckley running against Republican Lindsay for mayor in 1965, and his borther winning the NY Senate seat as a conservative (!!!!) in 1970.
“That did generally teach them to consult with the Conservative Party, which they evidently didn’t bother to do again this time around.”
we will need to MAKE them learn that lesson again.
“NRCC staffers are more concerned about not receiving dirty looks from their liberal georgetown buddies when in line at the nearest Starbucks than they are about actually winning races in “flyover country.””
They need to run the NRCC out of another city or locale.
Howdy.
1. It doesn’t matter who the NRCC’s guy was because he has since backed out, but they put a shadow over this race - and fundraising - from mid-June through 2 weeks ago.
2. Money will not beat Chet but he WILL be beat this time. The ground has shifted under him. He was redistricted in 2003 and this will be the first election where it won’t be “safe” to vote for him because a Republican is in the WH. I’ve talked with people up and down this district and it’s a different election.
3. Rob is running again. If you look at the last election, on a precinct by precinct basis, Rob pulled 15-20% less than McCain/Palin in over 90% of the precincts. That’s not a “pretty good showing” - it’s voting for the (R) after the name, and nothing more.
4. Edwards DID lie about the FairTax (I’m a supporter) and he DID outspend Curnock 20:1, but that is because Curnock had no money to counter Edwards’ claim. Rob raised exactly $5,000 in PAC money to Edwards’ 1.2 Million. (Rob raised another 90k in private donations to Chet’s additional 1.2 million in private donations, or 2.4 million to 100k)
I’ll be on a plane to D.C. the Thurs after the primary and I will talk to the PACs and the NRCC and our Texas Republican Delegation about raising money. It’s there, but you have to have the passion behind the message to GO GET IT!
5. Sarah Palin has said that she will come campaign in the 40-50 close districts with a strong conservative. That’s me. No commitments yet, but I think Gov. Palin will raise some serious 6 figure money for our eventual nominee (and that will be me).
6. We don’t think Sen. Ogden will get into this race. He has so far showed no interest. We know that the NRCC was recruiting him and would have gone with him over the guy that just backed out and that is an indication that he wasn’t interested before. We also know the NRCC is pressuring him to reconsider. Frankly, he has better opportunities. For example, he could make a run for Kay’s seat when she vacates it, or the Lt. Gov if it gets vacated over Kay’s seat.
7. The field looks like it will be 4-5 Candidates, each with strengths and weakness, including me. My strength, however, is that I’m THE Conservative in the race, and I’m the most passionate about it: If you can find a more conservative candidate for Congress, you should vote for them, but, you won’t. I’m leaving my job as an RN on Nov 5th to run f/t for this office.
8. I’m a Navy Vet, and I’m the only Aggie in the race and being an Aggie is important because Chet banks on that below Robertson Co. A conservative Aggie in the race could counter enough loyalty votes to have made a difference in 2/3 last elections.
9. On average, when an incumbent is defeated by a challenger, the challenger spends 700k and the incumbent spends 2.3 million. It’s not just about money, it’s about message and passion. My message is Constitutional conservatism and I’m very passionate about our values.
10. Chet is going to lose. The NRCC should have considered a golden opportunity to replace him with a conservative instead of anybody with a checkbook (including a checkbook sponsored by George Soros). It was blatant malpractice.
http://www.timothyforcongress.com
Do NOT let them pass the buck on that. This is Sessions' call. DON"T LET THEM TELL YOU TO CALL THE NRCC. KEEP CALLING SESSIONS' OFFICE DIRECTLY.
Thanks for a solid, clear reply on all points.
1) Actually I’d like to know who he is just so I can understand what they
2) I agree on that. It’s time for Chet to go.
3) I wouldnt be hard on Rob Curnock, he way outperformed Van Taylor and Chet has *always* run ahead of the Dem ticket - that’s why Chet is a survivor. he is slippery and runs as an independent.
4) Glad you know the money score.
“It’s there, but you have to have the passion behind the message to GO GET IT!” Yes it is. If you show you can campaign and you win the primary, I’m sure you’ll get what you need.
5) You betcha!
6) Plenty of US Senate hopefuls (I’m supporting Michael Williams). Sen Ogden wont be one (and if is, he wont get noticed). A state senator is one who couldnt be pegged by Chet as extreme, since he’s got a record. of course Chet did it to Arlene W in 2004... but 2010 will be different. Chet cant run from his liberal record any more.
7) With all due respect, I suspect if you do have 4-5 candidates, they will ALL run as conservatives, since its a conservative district. If any dont, they are idiots and will deserve their last place showing ... IF you can be the committed, principled, listen-to-people, servant-leader Conservative who CAN BEAT CHET, that would be worth something.
Any ‘heavy hitters’ running? ie state reps or state senators (eg Kip Averitt)?
8) Aggie ... good ... Gig em! Military vet is also very important since Chet has used that ... gotta pry those vet voters who were BOUGHT OFF with VA hospital panders! Remind vets they are patriots not welfare cases!
9) Message, passion and ability to reach out and convince voters, yes! Frankly, above about $400,000 will be just more of same. But you will need a good voter database and get about 1,000 volunteers ie IN EVERY PRECINCT IN THE DISTRICT. Call all the “G” voters find out who are conservative former Chet voters and swing them over to you.
10) COMPLETE 100% AGREEMENT. This is conservative district and it needs a conservative to Represent it.
FYI. There is RPT training on Nov 7th in Austin. I’m going. You might want to think about going or sending your campaign manager.
My first job as a RN was in the VA Hospital system. Chet has nothing on me when it comes to vets: I AM ONE, and, I’ve been down in the trenches taking care of our vets.
As a direct result of working with the VA system, one of my key campaign points is that I believe that vets should be able to go the local hospital and doctor of their choice. I don’t know why the Republican Party doesn’t pick up on this, because it’s a very popular position, especially among vets.
You’d be surprised about candidates being conservative here. You’d think that candidates running in this district would be and proclaim conservatism. It’s not the case. I would say that Rob and I are the only ones routinely referencing conservative values. I’ll give him that. Of course, I’m THE Conservative. (I’m posting on FReeRepublic and I’ve been posting here since long before I joined this political race.)
I’ll look at Nov. 7th w/ the RPT. It was already on our radar but I don’t think we’ve committed to it, yet. I’m taking 4 months off work to campaign f/t starting Nov. 5th. It’s a leap of faith.
Say a prayer for me. If you like, you can make it more general and pray that the most conservative candidate wins. That’s me. This is about getting our values and our passion to Washington.
Thanks for the chat, feel free to send me a message if you like. Go to my website and drop in your email, and we’ll add you to the campaign’s email list so you can follow me.
Timothy
THE Conservative for District 17.
I’ve been doing volunteer work for Hoffman for the past 6 days, spent a few days in the district .... having a great time!
Leave some dog crap in Dede’s mailbox for me! ;)
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