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Will Tea Partiers Sink Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky Senate Reelection Bid?
thedailybeast.com ^ | 8/4/14 | Ben Jacobs

Posted on 08/04/2014 5:06:45 AM PDT by cotton1706

The Senate minority leader, long reviled among many on the right for what they see as kowtowing to Democrats, is in a tough race for his seat—and in trouble with the Tea Party.

If Alison Lundergan Grimes pulls off an upset victory over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in November, she may have Tea Partiers to thank. But don’t expect conservative voters to rally to Grimes—they simply aren't getting behind McConnell.

Although the five-term Republican ended up winning a a tough primary challenge from businessman Matt Bevin handily, the race was one of the most vicious and ugly this cycle, with Bevin’s campaign badly damaged in a cockfighting scandal. And while some disaffected conservatives have backed McConnell in November, Bevin has still not endorsed him, and many of the Tea Party groups that supported the businessman are following suit. As a result, in a recent poll, nearly 20% of self-identified Republicans didn't support McConnell.

Scott Hofstra, spokesman for the United Kentucky Tea Party, said he isn’t backing McConnell and “taking the lesser of the two evils approach.” Many conservatives, Hofstra predicted, either will leave the box on the ballot for U.S. Senate empty or will vote for David Patterson, the libertarian candidate. The senator has alienated many Tea Partiers and has yet to reach out to bridge the gap, Hofstra said. The divide was opened further, he added, by McConnell’s open support for Thad Cochran in the Mississippi Senate runoff and McConnell’s association with pro-Cochran ads that many conservatives assailed as race-baiting. “If there were some people on the fence after what happened in Kentucky, the Mississippi incident really put them over the edge,” Hofstra said. Still, he noted that Tea Party dissatisfaction with McConnell wasn’t winning Grimes their votes. “I haven’t talked to anybody who would vote her.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; kentuckykickback; nomorerinos; rino
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To: boycott

So what you’re saying is that you vote against the GOP-E when it’s convenient for you.

Remember, there is no place on your ballot for ‘votes against’. You only get to vote for. And if you vote for GOP-E, then congratulations. You bought it. It’s yours to keep.

Ted Cruz had it right during the partial shutdown. If you vote for it, you support it.

And what if we did form a third party (or more accurately, a second one)? Would you join it?


141 posted on 08/04/2014 10:45:51 AM PDT by Colonel_Flagg ("Compromise" means you've already decided you lost.)
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To: cotton1706
We need to adopt a basketball strategy of "fouls to give."

We need to figure out with some confidence how many seats we are likely to win, and how many we can strategically lose and still hold the Senate.

We came close to winning the Senate in 2012, but all the Senate races collapsed after the convention. I blame McConnell's failure of leadership for the 2012 Senate losses. He failed to make retaking the Senate a national issue. He failed to get out in front of the news and make the news.

We may never retake the Senate because of McConnell, not due to a McConnell loss.

-PJ

142 posted on 08/04/2014 10:46:40 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

I’d be satisfied with tar & feathers and riding them out of town on a rail.


143 posted on 08/04/2014 10:48:09 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: DiogenesLamp; Innovative

Paging Mr “Screw the TEA Party” Innovative.

Perhaps you’d like to print out post 115 and hang it on your wall.


144 posted on 08/04/2014 10:49:57 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: originalbuckeye

I agree. Not a big fan of McConnell, but his opponent should endorse him, like Cantor did.


145 posted on 08/04/2014 10:55:09 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: roamer_1
Is that the ability to fart in 3-part harmony? ; )


For some, the body is a temple.

For others, it's a “Wind Instrument.”

146 posted on 08/04/2014 10:56:06 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rome2000

The best we can hope for is a right wing dictatorship


There’s no such thing.

The “Right Wing” is Conservative. Conservatives favor free markets and individual governence and personal liberty.

Communists and NAZIs are both Left Wing Collectivists. The Communists agitate via class-strife while the NAZIs agitate via racial-strife.


147 posted on 08/04/2014 10:59:25 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: KC_Conspirator; originalbuckeye

I agree. Not a big fan of McConnell, but his opponent should endorse him, like Cantor did.


McConnell’s opponent should endorse McConnel the same way McConnell and Corynyn endorsed McDaniel.


148 posted on 08/04/2014 11:05:29 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: COBOL2Java

I’d be satisfied with tar & feathers and riding them out of town on a rail.


I’m very disappointed with your post. You left out torches and pitchforks.


149 posted on 08/04/2014 11:06:30 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

LOL! Oops...


150 posted on 08/04/2014 11:30:06 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

“Do you support the GOPe?”

_______________________________________________

My answer is not just no, but “Hell no!”

I voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and a reach-across-the-aisle RINO who was running for the open Senate seat in Maine, which was won by so-called independent Angus King.

After that 2012 debacle, I decided that I would never again vote for a RINO. Fortunately, Maine’s governor is a conservative and is up for re-election and my district’s open congressional seat has a GOP conservative running for the House, so I will definitely be voting in November. Then there are the state races.


151 posted on 08/04/2014 11:37:21 AM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (I don't want to feel "safe." I want to feel FREE!)
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation; Innovative; boycott
I held my nose and voted for the GOPe’s “perfumed princes” in ‘08 and ‘12.

Never again.

Additionally, I will not vote for any GOP candidate that declares their intention to “destroy the TEA Party,” nor one that clearly undermines/back-stabs a conservative candidate.

If this gives certain individuals a “case of the vapors” then they should take the matter up with the GOPe. They're the ones who stated that they need neither Conservatives nor the TEA Party.

152 posted on 08/04/2014 11:44:50 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: billhilly
but I do enjoy being provocative

As opposed to being Conservative.

153 posted on 08/04/2014 3:30:31 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a Progressive RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

Brain dead, chinless one, etc ad infinitum.

Don’t you think successful politics generally avoids child like name calling?


154 posted on 08/04/2014 4:08:29 PM PDT by billhilly (Its OK, the left hated Bush.)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

Brain dead, chinless one, etc ad infinitum.

Don’t you think successful politics generally avoids child like name calling?


155 posted on 08/04/2014 4:08:49 PM PDT by billhilly (Its OK, the left hated Bush.)
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Comment #156 Removed by Moderator

To: DiogenesLamp

We need six. Projections are suggesting we will get 14.


I will assure you that isn’t going to happen.


157 posted on 08/04/2014 4:21:58 PM PDT by boycott
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To: boycott; Admin Moderator

You’re a freakin’ damn idiot. You took my comment out of context. Stupid bastard!


Isn’t there something about “personal attacks” in the posting guidelines?

“Screw the TEA Party” was bad enough, but really?


158 posted on 08/04/2014 4:22:15 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse; Admin Moderator

You’re a freakin’ damn idiot. You took my comment out of context. Stupid bastard!

Isn’t there something about “personal attacks” in the posting guidelines?

“Screw the TEA Party” was bad enough, but really?


You took my comments out of context. Go cry to the moderator.

I’ve been working today and I came back and found your childish comments. You stayed on my heels and I am tried of it.


159 posted on 08/04/2014 4:28:29 PM PDT by boycott
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To: originalbuckeye

ROFLOL!!!!


160 posted on 08/04/2014 4:30:39 PM PDT by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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