Republican "Main Street Advocacy" Attacks Conservative Groups

FreedomWorks.org ^ | November 12, 2013 | Jason Hart

[SoConPubbie]

Main Street Advocacy, an organization created expressly to fight limited-government groups who challenge Republican Party officials, launched its first advertisement on November 6.

“The reason that Harry Reid and the Democrats control the U.S. Senate is thanks to the efforts of the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and the Tea Party,” Main Street Advocacy President Steve LaTourette said in the release for a video containing brief clips from Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, and Christine O’Donnell.

Focusing on a few embarrassing losses while ignoring the success of Sen. Ted Cruz and many others, Main Street Advocacy’s message is clear: only Republican leadership should have the power to choose who runs for national office as a Republican.

LaTourette – a DC lobbyist and former congressman from northeastern Ohio – is also the current president of Republican Main Street Partnership and heads Defending Main Street, Main Street Advocacy’s sister political action committee.

When candidates backed by the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), or National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) lose, allies like LaTourette offer explanations ranging from funding, to messaging, to technology problems, to the overall political climate.

When a more conservative candidate loses after being backed by independent right-of-center groups, however, RNC, NRSC, and NRCC eagerly blame the organizations who supported him or her.

Although the reverse is certainly true in terms of fingers pointed at the Republican establishment when its chosen candidates lose, the sense of victimhood expressed by LaTourette is bizarre.

According to LaTourette, Main Street Advocacy and Defending Main Street exist because the mammoth RNC, NRSC, and NRCC need help blocking threats against their power.

Defending Main Street’s plan to spend $8 million in 2014 primary races is “a baby step that we’re beginning with to try to level the playing field,” the former 18-year congressman told The Washington Post in July.

In a September 20 Washington Post op-ed, LaTourette slammed FreedomWorks and Club for Growth as “organizations that have made a lucrative business out of Washington’s dysfunction.”

“No amount of polling will convince those who are content with pandering to the base that what they are doing is damaging the party,” LaTourette sneered in an October 15 Newsweek column on the partial shutdown of the federal government.

“For the first time, there will be a group representing the governing wing of the Republican Party that will not only defend itself, but also push back,” LaTourette said in Main Street Advocacy’s November 6 release.

In the July 31, 2012 speech on the House floor where he announced his resignation from Congress, LaTourette decried the refusal of conservatives to support bloated farm and highway spending bills.

“We’re talking about building roads and bridges for Christ’s sake. We’re not talking about big Democratic and Republican initiatives,” LaTourette said.

Since leaving Congress and becoming a lobbyist, LaTourette has been on the front lines attacking conservatives who reject the Republican Party’s standard go-along-to-get-along approach.

“We want our party back,” LaTourette said last week at a New York City fundraiser covered by The New York Times.

Shortly before announcing his resignation last year, LaTourette cosponsored a “compromise” budget that would have increased taxes. The congressman did not take kindly to conservative opposition to his proposal.

“We’re asking that members tonight stand up, that they stand up to the bloodsuckers in this town who take 5, 10, 15, 25 dollars from our constituents to pretend to defend causes on their behalf,”LaTourette said in a speech on the House floor.

LaTourette claims to speak for the “centrist” or “moderate” wing of the Republican Party, but his voting record pegs him among the party’s leftmost members.

LaTourette’s lifetime score from FreedomWorks is 54 percent; he scored 32 percent in 2012.

LaTourette’s 2012 Heritage Action score of 35 percent was lower than every other Republican except Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the senators from Maine. Sen. Snowe is helping Defending Main Street with fundraising.

Of all Republicans, only New Hampshire Congressman Charles Bass and Illinois Congressman Bob Dold had lower Club for Growth ratings than the 45 percent LaTourette earned in 2012. LaTourette’s highest Club for Growth score was 69 percent in 2010, and his lowest was 18 percent in 2007.

Along with Rep. David Joyce, LaTourette’s hand-picked replacement for his former district, Rep. Dold is one of the six candidates Main Street Advocacy has already endorsed for 2014.

This story was originally published at Media Trackers.

[SoConPubbie]

"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[DManA]

The Tea Party has values.
The GOP has interests.

[donmeaker]

Washington functions far too well at racheting up the debt and racheting down our freedoms.

I am for a little less function in those areas, just myself.

[Paladin2]

“Main Street Advocacy”, funded by Wall Street insiders.

[BenLurkin]

So, who needs GOP control of the Senate if they are nothing more than the go-slow wing of The Party of Government.

‘Rat Statists or RINO Statists. What’s the point?

[DManA]

Good. Normally their political money goes to democrats. Let them waste some of it on this junk.

[SC_Pete]

Instead of blowing Obamacare out of the water while they have a chance, the Republican Establishment attacks its base. How unbelievably stupid.

[dowcaet]

Rats and RINOS belong together. Not a dime’s worth of policy differences between them.

[Viennacon]

The Madoff wing of the party wakes up.

[NormsRevenge]

Keyword

RMSP

rump buddies of the left

[stocksthatgoup]

Main Street Members • 

SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS • 

SENATOR MARK KIRK • 

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN • 

CONGRESSWOMAN SUSAN BROOKS • 

CONGRESSMAN LARRY BUCSHON • 

CONGRESSMAN KEN CALVERT • 

CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP • 

CONGRESSWOMAN SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO • 

CONGRESSMAN CHRIS COLLINS • 

CONGRESSMAN PAUL COOK • 

CONGRESSMAN RODNEY DAVIS • 

CONGRESSMAN JEFF DENHAM • 

CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE DENT • 

CONGRESSMAN MARIO DIAZ-BALART • 

CONGRESSMAN SEAN DUFFY • 

CONGRESSMAN MIKE FITZPATRICK • 

CONGRESSMAN JEFF FORTENBERRY • 

CONGRESSMAN RODNEY FRELINGHUYSEN • 

CONGRESSMAN JIM GERLACH • 

CONGRESSMAN CHRIS GIBSON • 

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL GRIMM • 

CONGRESSMAN RICHARD HANNA • 

CONGRESSWOMAN JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER • 

CONGRESSWOMAN LYNN JENKINS • 

CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON • 

CONGRESSMAN DAVID JOYCE • 

CONGRESSMAN MIKE KELLY • 

CONGRESSMAN PETER KING • 

CONGRESSMAN ADAM KINZINGER • 

CONGRESSMAN LEONARD LANCE • 

CONGRESSMAN TOM LATHAM • 

CONGRESSMAN FRANK LOBIONDO • 

CONGRESSMAN DAVID MCKINLEY • 

CONGRESSWOMAN CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS • 

CONGRESSMAN PAT MEEHAN • 

CONGRESSMAN TIMOTHY MURPHY • 

CONGRESSMAN ERIK PAULSEN • 

CONGRESSMAN THOMAS PETRI • 

CONGRESSMAN TOM W. REED • 

CONGRESSMAN DAVID REICHERT • 

CONGRESSMAN JIM RENACCI • 

CONGRESSMAN SCOTT RIGELL • 

CONGRESSMAN JON RUNYAN • 

CONGRESSMAN AARON SCHOCK • 

CONGRESSMAN MIKE SIMPSON • 

CONGRESSMAN STEVE STIVERS • 

CONGRESSMAN LEE TERRY • 

CONGRESSMAN PAT TIBERI • 

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL TURNER • 

CONGRESSMAN FRED UPTON • 

CONGRESSMAN DAVID VALADAO • 

CONGRESSMAN GREG WALDEN • 

CONGRESSMAN ED WHITFIELD • 

CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF • 

CONGRESSMAN TODD YOUNG

[Revolting cat!]

All of them Shiftkeyless!

[Responsibility2nd]

Main Street Advocacy.

Making note here. It’s good to know who our enemies are.

[jimbo123]

His collaborators:

SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS

SENATOR MARK KIRK

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN

CONGRESSWOMAN SUSAN BROOKS

CONGRESSMAN LARRY BUCSHON

CONGRESSMAN KEN CALVERT

CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP

CONGRESSWOMAN SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO

CONGRESSMAN CHRIS COLLINS

CONGRESSMAN PAUL COOK

CONGRESSMAN RODNEY DAVIS

CONGRESSMAN JEFF DENHAM

CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE DENT

CONGRESSMAN MARIO DIAZ-BALART

CONGRESSMAN SEAN DUFFY

CONGRESSMAN MIKE FITZPATRICK

CONGRESSMAN JEFF FORTENBERRY

CONGRESSMAN RODNEY FRELINGHUYSEN

CONGRESSMAN JIM GERLACH

CONGRESSMAN CHRIS GIBSON

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL GRIMM

CONGRESSMAN RICHARD HANNA

CONGRESSWOMAN JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER

CONGRESSWOMAN LYNN JENKINS

CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON

CONGRESSMAN DAVID JOYCE

CONGRESSMAN MIKE KELLY

CONGRESSMAN PETER KING

CONGRESSMAN ADAM KINZINGER

CONGRESSMAN LEONARD LANCE

CONGRESSMAN TOM LATHAM

CONGRESSMAN FRANK LOBIONDO

CONGRESSMAN DAVID MCKINLEY

CONGRESSWOMAN CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS

CONGRESSMAN PAT MEEHAN

CONGRESSMAN TIMOTHY MURPHY

CONGRESSMAN ERIK PAULSEN

CONGRESSMAN THOMAS PETRI

CONGRESSMAN TOM W. REED

CONGRESSMAN DAVID REICHERT

CONGRESSMAN JIM RENACCI

CONGRESSMAN SCOTT RIGELL

CONGRESSMAN JON RUNYAN

CONGRESSMAN AARON SCHOCK

CONGRESSMAN MIKE SIMPSON

CONGRESSMAN STEVE STIVERS

CONGRESSMAN LEE TERRY

CONGRESSMAN PAT TIBERI

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL TURNER

CONGRESSMAN FRED UPTON

CONGRESSMAN DAVID VALADAO

CONGRESSMAN GREG WALDEN

CONGRESSMAN ED WHITFIELD

CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF

CONGRESSMAN TODD YOUNG

[ilgipper]

If my congressperson was on here, I’d sty home next November.

I am sad to see couple on here who I supported previously. One in particular is a surprise.

[G Larry]

Hey Mainstreet!

Thou art lukewarm and I vomit you out of my mouth.

Thou art entrenched in the gutters of the capital and wed to the spoils of your office.

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” Psalms 109:8

[jimbo123]

Board of Directors

Hon. Amory Houghton, Chairman and Founder

At his retirement, former Congress-man Amo Houghton (R-New York) was the sixth ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired its Oversight Subcommittee, and served on its Trade Subcommittee. He also was a member of the International Relations Committee and vice chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa. Houghton built a reputation as a results-oriented congressman who espoused moderate social programs and conservative fiscal policy. He was a founder of 1997′s historic Bipartisan Congressional Retreat, which focused on the role of civility in political life. Houghton is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society, an issues forum that brings together moderate officeholders with top business leaders. He also is an active member of a group of moderate Republicans that has worked to produce a balanced budget. The only former CEO of a Fortune 500 firm ever to serve in the House, Houghton is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School. He joined Corning Glass Works (now Corning, Incorporated) as an accountant in 1951 after serving as a Pfc. in the Marine Corps. He retired from Corning in 1986 after serving as president, board chairman and chief executive officer. Houghton makes his home in Corning, New York.

Hon. Steve LaTourette, President and Chief Executive Officer Former US Representative Steven C. LaTourette is the President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. LaTourette served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives representing Northeast Ohio’s 14th Congressional District. In the House, LaTourette was a member of the Appropriations Committee and previously served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Prior to his election to the House of Representatives, LaTourette served from 1989 to 1995 as the Lake County Prosecutor. In 1990, he was named Prosecuting Attorney of the Year in Ohio for his successful prosecution of 13 members of a murderous religious cult. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He now lives in McLean, Virginia and is the father of six children.

Sarah Chamberlain CPA, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Sarah Chamberlain serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the Main Street Partnership. Prior to serving as COO/CFO, Chamberlain was Executive Director of the John Quincy Adams Society and the Main Street Partnership. Chamberlain is a graduate of the University of Delaware and received Masters degrees in Business Administration and Education from Elmira College in New York. She resides with her daughter in Virginia.

Hon. Dave Hobson, Board Member Former US Representative Dave Hobson is the president of Vorys Advisors LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of the law firm, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP. As president of Vorys Advisors, Mr. Hobson provides business and strategic counsel to Ohio businesses and other clients. Mr. Hobson joined Vorys Advisors after retiring from the US House of Representatives, where he represented Ohio’s 7th District for 18 years. While in Congress, Mr. Hobson served as the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee; chairman of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee; senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; and member of both the Veterans Affairs/Housing Subcommittee and the Budget Committee. Prior to serving in Congress, Mr. Hobson spent eight years as a State Senator in the Ohio Senate, where he served in numerous leadership roles, including president pro tempore, majority whip, chairman of the Health, Human Services and Aging Committee and chairman of the Reference and Oversight Committee. Before elected to public office, Hobson was involved in both real estate development and the restaurant industry. He also worked at the Kissell Company in Springfield, and at the Union Central Life Insurance Company.

Tim Regan, Board Member Timothy J. Regan is the Senior Vice President, Worldwide Government Affairs for Corning, INC. He became director of International Programs in 1985, director of Public Policy in 1989, and was appointed division vice president in 1992. Regan was named vice president and director of Federal Government Affairs in April 1997. He was appointed vice president and director-Government Affairs in April 1998, and to his current position in December 2000. Before coming to Corning in 1985, Regan held several positions with the Executive Office of the President. Most recently he was Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Industrial Trade Policy, where he managed a staff of economists and lawyers who developed trade policy affecting all industrial sectors. Prior to that, Regan was a senior executive, a trade negotiator and an international economist in several Federal agencies. He also served as a staff economist in the White House when he first came to Washington in the mid-1970s. Regan is a graduate of American International College and holds a master’s degree in business from the Stanford School of Business where he was a Sloan Fellow. He also has done graduate work in economics and international law at Georgetown University and George Washington University. He sits on the boards of the Information Technology Industry Council (serving as Vice Chairman), the Telecommunications Industry Association, and American International College. He also is the President of the Emissions Control Technology Association.

[Dick Bachert]

I’ve posted this around the net a number of times and do so again inasmuch as THIS is a constantly recurring problem and some may not grasp how widespread it is. And now that the RNC has OPENLY declared war on the Tea Party, it should be clear to all why I have for a few decades cautioned my many friends to NOT SEND THE RNC A NICKLE.

Over the years – when, to steal a line from Billy Joel, I wore a younger man’s clothes – I was involved with several pretty solid conservative candidates for Congress. One was a Democrat (Lawrence Patton McDonald) – because that was the only way he could win in that district. Those old-timers who know Larry’s record will tell you that he was a solid an anti-communist America Firster and more Republican than the Pubbies in nearby districts at the time. (His mother’s cousin was General George Patton from whom he got the middle name – and his incredible resolve and love of this country.) How ironic that he, like General Patton, was also assassinated by the communists they both despised. It was my honor to introduce Larry at his last public speech in the district before that ill-fated KAL007 flight!

Those other candidates ran as Republicans and each had to pass my rigid litmus test or I went looking for someone who did. For that reason, I hooked up with what the TRADITIONAL country club Pubbie establishment types believed were too radical for their refined tastes. I served as treasurer for several and in other capacities for more.

As those campaigns began to unfold and it became clear to the country clubbers that these guys 1) had a shot and 2) were pretty independent thinkers who would be hard to keep on the reservation once they got sworn in, the local Pubbies communicated that information to the Republican National HQ types who rather quickly sent in campaign “professionals” ostensibly to lock up the impending victory.

Instead, in nearly every case to which I was privy, these “professionals” proceeded to TORPEDO our guy’s campaign in subtle but effective ways.

From that experience I can tell you that the Pubbies at the HQ in D.C. would rather have a Democrat win a given district than have a pubbie up there who would embarrass them by refusing to follow the party line.

If YOU become involved in campaigns for solidly conservative, America and Constitution loving, hard-nosed, independent thinking candidates in 2014 and beyond – and I pray many of you do — please DO NOT trust any of those folks from GOP HQ in Washington. If they want to send you no-strings cash for your campaign, take it. If, however, they “suggest” sending in one of their “professionals,” tell them to fuggetaboutit.

They ARE WHO GOT US INTO THIS MESS AND THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS!!!!

“The common and continual mischief of the spirit of Party is
sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to
discourage and restrain it.” G. Washington

(BTW, My genealogical research informs me that my 5th great-grandfather, one John Carpenter, was one of George Washington’s Virginia neighbors and fought with GW in the French and Indian War and the Revolution. Prior to that, John traveled with GW during his survey of the Northwest Territories.)

[jimbo123]

Staff

David Thomas, Executive Director David Thomas is the Executive Director of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Thomas joined Main Street in 2008 after serving as Chief of Staff for US Representative Tom Davis (R-VA). Before serving as Chief of Staff to Rep. Davis, Thomas was Associate Political Director for the Office of Political Affairs in the Bush White House. During his time at the White House, Thomas oversaw the Western Region of the United States, where he facilitated regional political and policy discussions. In addition to his time in the White House, Thomas also previously served as Campaign Manager and District Director for Rep. Davis. Thomas is a graduate of George Mason University and resides in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Chris Barron, Press Representative Chris Barron is a communications specialist with a history of communicating complex issues to a wide variety of audiences. Chris has worked with a wide range of clients and represented individuals and interests across the political spectrum. Mr. Barron serves as the press representative for former Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-OH) and for the Main Street Partnership. Chris also serves as a Strategic Communications Consultant to McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies. Mr. Barron’s client list has included state and national political organizations and interest groups, as well as candidates and elected officials on the local, state and federal level. Chris graduated from the Wake Forest University School of Law and received his undergraduate degree from East Carolina University.

Patrick Rooney, Public Policy Manager Patrick Rooney is a Public Policy Manager with the Republican Main Street Partnership, having joined the organization in May of 2012. Prior to joining Main Street Rooney interned in the leadership office of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner (R-OH). Rooney is a graduate of George Mason University, and lives in Northern Virginia.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Main Street Advocacy’s message is clear: only Republican leadership should have the power to choose who runs for national office as a Republican.

This will be another painful test for the GOPe.

NOPe to GOPe