Posted on 05/19/2010 12:17:09 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
On Tuesday morning, Republicans who were closely watching the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District — once represented by John Murtha — did not offer ironclad, take-it-to-the-bank guarantees that their man Tim Burns was going to win. But they liked his chances, and expected him to at least run close to Democrat Mark Critz.
The final tally wasn’t close: Critz won 53.4 percent to Burns’s 44.3 percent, with all precincts but one reporting. Critz won a bit more than 71,000 votes, Burns a bit more than 59,000.
So what happened? Among the arguments emerging late Tuesday night:
Critz ran as a conservative: Some conservatives bitterly chuckled that Democrats were celebrating the victory of a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat who opposed health care and cap-and-trade. (Public Policy Polling found only 30 percent of the district’s voters support Obamacare, and 58 percent oppose.) This comes on the heels of an anti-Obamacare, anti-Pelosi, pro-life Democrat, Mike Oliverio, knocking off incumbent Alan Mollohan in West Virginia. They contend that few Democrats will be able to run on as conservative a platform as Critz and Oliverio did.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
been posted before.
NRO is out of touch DC insider !
I guaran-damn-tee you that their principles will wither when exposed to the tactics of The Rahminator. They will be assimilated.
One of the more balances sensible takes I’ve seen on this particular election.
You can’t fix stupid and many times you can’t vote it out if the voters themselves are the major stupid reason.
Hopefully, the trend is our friend.
Did Burns run on REPEAL?
Did he badger his opponent on this question?
A RAT won an overwhelmingly RAT district by claiming conservative principles. Big deal. If this is the RAT’s idea of a “victory”, that’s fine.
Pennsylvania had a closed election and the Independent vote was suppressed. I think the fall election will be much more competitive. The big news that everyone is ignoring happened in District 4. It looks like Altmire may lose to Rothfus in the fall.
They should have run Russell again. Or do something to get his supporters to come out.
Yes, he did win. But consider this:
Critz goes to Washington as a Democrat with zero (0) years of seniority. It’s going to be a long time before PA-12 sees the kind of earmarks it got under Murtha.
If he is smart, Critz will continue with the conservative line as that is the direction his district and the country appear to be going.
BTW, am I correct that the special election is only to fill out the remainder of Murtha’s unexpired term (i.e. until November 2010)?
I’ll be watching that race.
I thought Altmire might be primaried, since the unions threatened “consequences” for his vote against the healthcare bill.
Technically, I believe the term was to expire at the end of this year, with the election being held in November.
I'd prefer Burns won, of course. But as a bellwether for other races, I'm more interested in whether he beat the registration spread. It appears he did, by a lot. Isn't it 2-1 D:R? And he lost 6-5? I'd say the trend is still our friend.
The statement in the article read
“They contend that few Democrats will be able to run on as conservative a platform as Critz and Oliverio did.”
The dems might try this but the republicans have to hit them hard for the /DEms following the party line!!!
Didn't he claim Burns wanted to raise taxes and joined Burns to the Fair Tax by some typical Rat trick?
Good point. It’s worth noting that Russell’s GOP supporters had no incentive to vote for Burns. This might seem like a counterproductive “cut off your nose to spite your face” kind of approach, but the reality is that this was a special election for an open House seat that will be contested again in a “real” election in less than six months. Russell and Burns will be facing off again in the GOP primary for that election, so there was no reason for Russell’s supporters to cast votes for Burns this time around.
Critz had better really, really hope that Pelosi does not come down to needing his vote on anything, or he’s toast.
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