Posted on 11/18/2013 5:52:58 AM PST by cotton1706
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has an 89.12 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union and has been in Congress since 1995. Yet the Republican fixture on Capitol Hill will face four primary challengers next year, all of whom accuse him of not being a true conservative.
Graham, who is much in the mold of his friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is known for often reaching across the aisle on important legislative issues. One notable example of this is his being a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration reform group this year.
Before being elected to the Senate, Graham, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, previously served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.
“When a senator consistently gets pulled across the aisle and votes for legislation his Republican colleagues don’t vote for, you begin to question his judgment,” challenger Richard Cash said in an interview with ABC News. “People don’t trust him anymore.”
Bill Connor, a former candidate for South Carolina lieutenant governor who’s also challenging Graham, said much the same thing. “You don’t vote to defund Obamacare, and then vote for cloture on a bill to keep funding it,” said Connor, who also criticized Graham for putting ads in South Carolina showing his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. “That’s not being honest or showing character.”
Graham joins the likes of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and other prominent Republican Senators who are being challenged on their right flank this upcoming election season.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The Primary filing deadline is March 30, 2014. It will be interesting to see
which opponents begin to get some traction and financial support as that
deadline approaches. I don’t know about SC but usually it takes statewide
recognition and good financial backing to defeat an incumbent.
“will face four primary challengers next year
FOUR?? That creep is going to get reelected!”
There is a runoff if no candidate gets 50%. So the more the merrier to force Graham into an one on one race with an actual conservative.
A five person primary makes it very difficult for Graham to get to 50%! We can take Graham out in a runoff like we did David Dewhurst.
In the mean time, the South Carolina legislature is planning to close its primary so that democrats cannot assist Graham get reelected.
http://www.goupstate.com/article/20131103/OPINION/311031013/1128/opinion?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar
The primary has a 50% threshold. If no one reaches that, the top two have a run-off primary. Unlike a winner-takes-all primary, more candidates do not weaken the opposition, they strengthen it, because the additional choices makes it less likely for any candidate to reach 50% on the first ballot.
In a run-off, the challenger usually has an advantage, because their supporters are more motivated and often coalesce the incumbent's opposition.
“Cotton, you have greater confidence in the S. C. Legislature than I. This isn’t the first effort to close the Repub primary in recent years. Conservatives are still outnumbered by the Dems and the SCGOPe in the S. C. Legislature.”
Haha. Well, I didn’t say they’d succeed. But they may make people aware of the game that’s going on. And relate it to scumbag Graham. We can’t just sit back and say “oh, well” anymore. That legislation should be pushed every single year till it’s passed and enacted.
Rubio is not now and never will be a “conservative traitor.”
He would have to have been a conservative in the first place for that.
He was open about his open borders agenda in speeches he made to Spanish language audiences from the beginning. Links to many of those speeches on YouTube were posted here during his campaign.
There were and are a lot of people who were too credulous during his campaign. We showed them exactly what he was really about in his own words and then they were shocked when it turned out to be true. Kind of like the shock a lot of people who thought Obamacare was going to give them Bethesda care for almost free are now recieving.
Agreed. The sole reason Grahmnesty voted against that junk crap bill prohibiting employers from firing perverts was he was worried about a primary challenge. He’s all for the pervert agenda and amnesty! We need more like Ted Cruz.
That's good about the runoff elections there. Here in Missouri it's who gets the most votes wins. That is why I posted what I did.
I wish Mo. would close it's primaries too. We lost a good Repub. nominee in the Senate race last year because the democrats voted in our's and got a "crackpot" Tod Aiken nominated.
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