Posted on 11/03/2009 12:48:58 PM PST by BGHater
In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.
Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.
But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.
Activists predict a wave that could roll from California to Kentucky to New Hampshire and that could leave even some GOP incumbents — Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is one — facing unexpectedly fierce challenges from their right flank.
“I would say it’s the tip of the spear,” said Dick Armey, the former GOP House majority leader who now serves as chairman of FreedomWorks, an organization that has been closely aligned with the tea party movement. “We are the biggest source of energy in American politics today.”
“What you’re going to see,” said Armey, “is moderates and conservatives across the country in primaries.”
These high-stakes primaries, pitting the activist wing of the party against the establishment wing, stand to have a profound impact on the 2010 election landscape since they will create significant problems for moderate candidates recruited by the national party precisely because they appear well-suited to win in places that are not easily — or even plausibly — won by conservative candidates.
The tensions between the two visions threaten to limit the party’s gains in an election year that is shaping up in its favor.
Party strategists worry that well-funded, well-organized challenges from the right could force Republicans to exhaust precious resources on messy primary fights — or force moderate candidates to adopt more strident positions early on that could haunt them during the final months of the campaign.
“For me, what this says is, we need to take a deep breath and decide whether [moderates and conservatives] work together or not,” said Tom Davis, the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “And if we don’t, it can get very, very ugly.”
Activists contend that the only way back to majority status is to embrace the conservative principles that the party jettisoned during the past decades once it became too enamored of power. To them, the issue is less about ideological purity than about the compromises they see the party’s Washington establishment making and what they contend is a lack of support for conservative candidates who are deemed unelectable by GOP solons.
“New York 23, on some scale, is the first battle of a larger internal Republican debate over how to define the party,” said former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a conservative who is challenging Crist for the Senate nomination. “They want us to vote for their candidates, but they don’t want us to run for office.”
Rubio’s race is one that many on the right point to as the next New York 23, a contest where conservatives and tea party activists are in open revolt about Crist and the national party’s decision to endorse him despite his embrace — literally — of President Barack Obama and his stimulus package during a Florida visit in February.
Rubio has won nearly a dozen county GOP straw polls across the state and is rapidly becoming a darling of the tea party movement.
Everett Wilkinson, an organizer for the Florida Tea Party Patriots, said his group plans to take part in get-out-the-vote activities and other efforts to deny Crist the GOP nomination, despite the fact that Crist leads both Rubio and Rep. Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic nominee, by a comfortable margin.
To Wilkinson, he’d rather burn the house down if it means saving it.
“We would lose if Charlie Crist got elected or if another person who doesn’t support our policies got elected,” he said. “Our members are actively going to get out there and create awareness of the governor’s actions.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a leading conservative who has endorsed Rubio, said he viewed the Florida Senate race as distinct from the New York special election. But he agreed with Rubio’s contention that the national party needed to broaden its outlook on candidates.
“I’m not saying our party made a mistake, because there’s a debate within the party over what we should be,” he said. “If we just start looking at who can win — sometimes we might miss a gem in the rough in effect. And I said from the beginning, that’s what I think Rubio is.”
Florida turns out to be one of many states where Senate candidates favored — in one way or another — by the National Republican Senatorial Committee are facing serious pushback from the grass roots.
In almost every situation, the lay of the land is the same. Whether it’s California, Illinois, Connecticut, New Hampshire or Kentucky, the NRSC has found a candidate who appears to be an exceptionally strong general election prospect — either well-known, well-financed or ideologically well-suited to the state’s politics — who is nevertheless meeting with tough resistance at the grass-roots level from activists who believe the conservative cause would be better served over the long term, even if it means the party nominee loses in the short term.
Even in Illinois, where polls shows Kirk would be highly competitive as a general election candidate in a state in which Republicans have been crushed in recent elections, the prospect of picking up the president’s former Senate seat isn’t enough to win over many activists.
“We’re going to work hard as hell to make sure Mark Kirk doesn’t win,” said Evert Evertsen, an Illinois tea party organizer. “Mark Kirk is about as liberal as Arlen Specter was.”
GOP House and Senate incumbents are fair game, too.
In Utah, where Bennett has won reelection by landslide margins since first winning the seat in 1992, disgruntled conservatives are looking to take him down in next year’s state party convention after his Wall Street bailout vote last fall and several other high-profile votes in which he broke with the right.
In the House, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) is among a handful of GOP veterans facing primary challenges of varying competitiveness for their departures from conservative orthodoxy.
“It’s kind of like investors in a company saying they’re not going to tolerate it anymore. And that’s what we’re seeing here,” said Eric Odom, executive director of the American Liberty Alliance, a libertarian-oriented group. “We’re already gearing up. This is just the beginning.”
This is, BTW, what Sarah Palin did up here in Alaska. She ran against the Republican establishment and established her own coalition. Even if those Outside (our term for the Lower 48) manage to somehow marginalize her, her tactics still work. Speaking personally, I haven’t felt represented by either party in years. The Dems are the Marxists; the GOP are Fabian Socialists. A conservative party would have my support.
"Everett Wilkinson, an organizer for the Florida Tea Party Patriots, said his group plans to take part in get-out-the-vote activities and other efforts to deny Crist the GOP nomination, despite the fact that Crist leads both Rubio and Rep. Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic nominee, by a comfortable margin."
And, next year, Floridians will have a top-notch and truly conservative congressional candidate in Lt. Col. Allen West, Ret., (see westforcongress.com). When he begins getting his message out nationally, the National Party will have to take notice.
Nope. No way. No more "electable" compromise candidates just because he or she has an 'R' after their name. Either they are Conservative or they or not. And I don't care if the party loses because of it. No more RINOs period.
Excellent...
Dick Armey BUMP. Conservative to the end (unlike Newtie, who can change views as often as he changes ties).
NO JUANnabies either!
One of the biggest things Republicans have done is allow Democrats to paint conservatives as radicals. Now is the time for the Republicans to identify where the real extremists lie: on the left in the Democratic Party. We now have visual aids to prove it: Obama, Pelosi, Reed, Frank, Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett, Cass Sunstein . . . .
Republicans need conservatives or they DON’T HAVE A PARTY. RINO’s need to move over, admit defeat, and allow conservatives to regain power in the party. Most importantly, conservatives need to remind voters over and over and over again that the Democrats repeatedly lied to them about being moderate.
Finally, if Republican party elite can admit the truth and invite the conservatives back to the table, Republicans need to carve their well stated values and platform just right of center. If done properly, and if Republicans will adhere to their STATED principles, they should regain control for a long time.
The “compassionate conservatism” of W and the so called McCainiac Moderates have all but wrecked the party. We conservatives are not going to forget that, just like the voters in this country are not going to forget that the Democrats have perpetrated a total fraud on the electorate. . . at least if we behave ourselves in power and remind the public what was done to them.
“Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates”
Uncivil?? When conservatives express a preference for candidates that reflect their views the media is shocked and dismayed. How dare the lemmings refuse to follow the Rinos off the cliff!
What would they have us do, vote for those we dont believe in? This is ridiculous.
WHAT YOU SAID!
No more "best we can do" crap; it's TOO LATE FOR THAT.
We gotta go all-in with ONLY those who are in support of the Constitution as it was written and intended, and no more of the "big tent" bullshit.
There ain't NO WAY that the entitlements-dependent base of the socialists' voters will EVER vote for anything or anybody that DOESN'T GIVE THEM SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, as that's how they've been living for 4 generations.
We need candidates that will force people to be responsible, accountable, God-fearing Americans who work for a living and are proud of their efforts.
This is only a “nightmare” to the left, as it is a sign that the American people are beginning to awaken both to the thuggery of the left and to the betrayal of the nation and the public by RINOs.
HHmmm, I thought at least one of them was both.
The single biggest voting block in AMERICA is the self described “CONSERVATIVE” its 40% of the electorate, why the Republican Party decided to ever turn its back on this block shows they were listening to dems in the first place, and not reality.
“moderates” that are nothing more than liberals are not welcome in the party. True moderates are welcome, but they won’t and should not be the ones steering the ship.
Thanks, Uncle Miltie, for the sensible suggestion.
As much as I just LOVE the revolt in NY23, third-party candidates are almost always losers, guaranteeing victories for the least diluted vote. (Consider Mister Perot).
There are, hypothetically, some cases in which a squishy GOPer will be better than a Marxist Dem, and to be practical, there is nothing more important than trying to get ... at a minimum... the House back in 2010.
That said, the Country Club Rockefeller Republicans are very worried...and that's a good thing.
.
RINOs aside?
It's not as if Joe "STAND UP, Chuck!" Biden didn't warn the faithful. Remember, at the fundraiser right before the election when he ominously asked how many in the room would still be as enthusiastic in the ensuing 6 months following the inauguration?
Good 'ol Joe.
Nope, he didn't lie that time. LOL
I say, they all need a challenger, this is part of their job review.
If they pass their review, they keep their job, otherwise they are fired and someone else will take over.
GOP needs to understand, they are politically bankrupt just like a business that is downsized, we need to take inventory or decide who will be laidoff and who will stay.
We need the best team for this business.
I absolutely agree. I'm against any politician, R or D that will not pledge to dramatically reduce the size of government. The status quo and simply winning a majority in the House or Senate is meaningless to me.
We elect candidates to shrink the federal government of more deliberate action will be necessary (10th Amendment, Constitutional Amendments to start).
It appears the Conservative Tea Party Movement (CTPM) is effectively turning heads. This is a good thing.
NOW the CTPM must place hand on shoulder, and steer the Republican Party in the direction those heads have turned.
Money quote from Rubio:
“They want us to vote for their candidates, but they don’t want us to run for office.”
Nice to know you are all together on that.
Is it punishment we want? Nope, not really, but an end to the veering left that the GOP has been doing form decades.
It is time to get back to solid, Constitutionally based government, and we simply aren't going to get there electing people who are heading the wrong way.
We have tried to tell the GOP.
We have written letters, sent e-mails, posted on the internet, withheld donations, filled out surveys, and we not only got no response, but the wrong response.
That leaves me looking for a reason.
Are these people sellouts who do not care what we think, who have no values nor love for our Republic?
Or is it something uglier?
When Hillary was 'co-president', she grabbed 900 FBI files on "ranking Republicans". Though the files were eventually returned, I have little doubt the data was thoroughly mined beforehand, and was doubtlessly recorded somewhere.
With the folks currently in office, who'd say anything if the Holder Gang was merrily digging away for dirt on all the rest?
I have little doubt, and first suspected when Bill squeaked out of Prejury and Obstruction of Justice charges despite being caught red-handed (or blue dressed, or whatever), that people have been compromised by information which could end careers, sink businesses, dissolve marriages, and otherwise pound the target into poverty and ruin if not prison.
Whether they be media people, 'ranking Republicans', staffers, whomever--high or low, the Republican Party establishment has not been consistently supportive of Conservative values in their candidate selection and support on a widespread basis.
Even after the DC Tea Party, accompanied by numerous similar events throughout the country, the GOP is out schilling for candidates who espouse liberal talking points, and they continue to insist that (as they drag the canvas off the Religious, fiscal conservative, and Constitutionalist Right) that they need more people under the tent.
The people have spoken. Ignore us at your peril.
In te meantime, it is time to clean house.
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