Poll: Lamar Alexander Ahead of Primary Challenger, Under 50 Percent

Breitbart News ^ | May 22, 2014 | Matthew Boyle

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is well ahead of his Republican primary challenger but polling under 50 percent a few months ahead of his August primary, a new poll provided exclusively to Breitbart News shows. Alexander leads Tea Party-backed state Rep. Joe Carr 44-20, the Triton Polling poll of approximately 1037 likely GOP primary voters and conducted Wednesday this week found. The poll was commissioned by Tea Party Nation.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

http://www.carrfortn.com

[deport]

They have a lot of choices in the Senate race in KY if all the candidates listed at
the TN SOS web site actually get on the ballot. There are 8 Republicans, 4 Democrats,
1 Green and 10 Independents listed with a filing deadline of April, 3.

http://www.tn.gov/sos/election/PetitionsFiled.pdf

[deport]

TN has an open primary in that you don’t register by party and can select which
party you want to vote in when you choose your ballot at the polls. Correct?

[BushCountry]

Hmmm... if the establishment wanted to demoralize the Tea Party and had a large campaign chest. Why not set up a straw man Tea Party candidate and encourage him to not actively campaign. Have him make a little noise for publicity sake and let the media destroy the Tea Party after the primary.

[BushCountry]

Hmmm... if the establishment candidate wanted to demoralize the Tea Party and had a large campaign chest. Why not set up a straw man Tea Party candidate and encourage him to not actively campaign. Have him make a little noise for free publicity sake and let the media destroy the Tea Party after the primary.

[deport]

The latest Vanderbilt Poll released May 21, shows that Carr isn’t well known across
the state with 55% saying they have never heard of him. I’m not familiar with
the race so I don’t know if Carr isn’t campaigning or lacks finances to do so.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/May_2014_VUPoll_Slides.pdf

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/vupoll-home.php

[RginTN]

I’ve never had to do that so I think TN is a closed primary state.

[EXCH54FE]

“I will vote Carr in the primary and if he doesn’t win not vote for the liberal Alexander in the general because its silly to reward a big govt Republican.”

Carr has my vote and from what I hear around town a LOT of other folks will vote the same way.

[BushCountry]

I was just putting on a tin foil hat for the fun of it. But several races had Tea Party candidates that were blithering idiots or did even attempt to campaign. The poster above does make a point, organization of the Tea Party with a headquarters and a strong leader is needed.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Along with Chris McDaniel in MS and Richard Cash in SC, state Representative Joe Carr of TN is a Tea Party challenger to a GOP Senator that deserves our support, since he is qualified, experienced, far more conservative than the incumbent, and would win the general election handily. Senator Lamar Alexander is far less conservative than incumbent Senators for whose heads many FReepers have (or had) been calling, such as Pat Roberts of KS, Mitch McConnell of KY, John Cornyn of TX and Mike Enzi of WY, and Joe Carr has a proven conservative record and is a much better overall candidate than the proffered “Tea Party alternatives” in KS, KY, TX and WY.

Joe Carr has a tough row to hoe in order to beat Alexander and claim the GOP Senate nomination (and thus the Senate seat). There are six other Republicans running in the primary, so the anti-Alexander vote could be diluted if conservatives don’t coalesce around Carr; unlike in, say, SC, where job-one is to hold Lindsey Graham under 50% and force a run-off, TN does not have a run-off when the first-place finisher gets below 50% of the vote, so Carr won’t get a second bite at the apple and needs to get more votes than Alexander in the primary to defeat him. Fortunately, the TN primary isn’t until August 7, so Carr has plenty of time to catch up to Alexander and pull off the upset. For that to occur, however, we need all hands on deck. Joe Carr is one candidate on which all FReepers should be able to agree, and he needs your help in order not to get swamped by Alexander’s money.

There are a lot of FReepers who have seen their preferred candidates lose in gubernatorial, Senate and House primaries so far this cycle (myself included). Well, you can adopt Joe Carr as your new favorite. You know those $20 you were going to send to your preferred candidate who didn’t make it? Send it to Joe Carr’s campaign—he can beat Alexander if he improves his fundraising, and won’t be able to beat him if he doesn’t, so your dollars will have more of an impact in the TN Senate race than practically anywhere else.

Unlike many electoral goals for which we may wish from time to time, beating Lamar Alexander is both worthwhile and achievable. Let’s get it done. http://www.carrfortn.com/

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

I think that Carr has been campaigning constantly. Either he or his campaign manager (I forget which) said that his time is taken up almost entirely with speaking and fundraising. However, I have some opinions about how he could have improved his campaigning:

1. While he has been campaigning basically non-stop, I usually hear about the campaign stops after the event, not before. That needs to be fixed.

2. He needed to make it easier for supporters to acquire bumper stickers and yard signs. I had to travel to the campaign headquarters in Murfreesboro to get mine. This hopefully has now been fixed. If you click on “Volunteer” on his website, you can now request these.

3. He needs to make friends with some conservative papers in the state. His name is mentioned seldom in news articles within the state. Perhaps part of that is the reluctance of some media outlets to do anything that might be interpreted as opposing Alexander.

Just some observations on my part.

If he is truly only 24 points behind in the polls, and most don’t yet recognize his name, that margin could close a good bit in the coming weeks. That might cause some media outlets to devote more time to the race and raise his profile among voters. Hopefully.

[deport]

What I find indicates TN is a open primary state. Not sure of exactly how it works.
In Texas one didn’t register by party and selected the party ballot in which you
wanted to vote when you went to the polls on primary day. So I was wondering how
it worked in TN. Thanks for your response.

http://ballotpedia.org/Voting_in_Tennessee

https://www.google.com/#q=tennessee+open+or+closed+primary

[AuH2ORepublican]

“Hmmm... if the establishment candidate wanted to demoralize the Tea Party and had a large campaign chest. Why not set up a straw man Tea Party candidate and encourage him to not actively campaign. Have him make a little noise for free publicity sake and let the media destroy the Tea Party after the primary.”

---

That certainly would be possible in theory, and I wouldn’t put it past someone like Lamar Alexander, but it certainly is not the case that Joe Carr is some sort of straw man candidate propped up by Alexander—Carr is a proven conservative, and jumped into the Senate race when it became clear that more prominent conservatives (such as Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn) were not going to run.

But I can’t speak for the six unknown and unfunded candidates (they have reported raising $200 between the six of them!) who filed for the seat ....

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

As far as a setup by establishment Republicans, I don't think Joe Carr falls into that category. The jury may be out, however, on George Flinn. From the article:

From the article:

Other candidates—like Dr. George Flinn, who has been suspected of being a spoiler candidate Alexander brought in to weaken Carr’s chances—barely register in the poll.

From an April 4th article:

Before Flinn filed his papers this week, he called Alexander up as a courtesy because he has “the ultimate respect for the man.”

And when asked if Flinn believed Alexander was a good senator, he paused and said: “For the things that have come up for the time? Yes.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/george-flinn-lamar-alexander-tennessee-105393.html

[entropy12]

I am petrified by past results in Indiana, Delaware & Missouri where sure to win republican senate seats were lost by nominating bad candidates.

[deoetdoctrinae]

I have worked at the polls a few times here in Tennessee. When a voter prepares to fill out the application for ballot, we ask “In which primary do you wish to vote?”, and there is a place for the voter to mark his or her choice. Once the primary has been selected, a machine operator prints an access code for the voter to take into the booth, and it brings up the primary that was selected.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“I am petrified by past results in Indiana, Delaware & Missouri where sure to win republican senate seats were lost by nominating bad candidates.”

---

While such apprehension is understandable, analyzing the particular situation of the TN Senate race should put your mind at ease. While it is true that Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock proved that even experienced candidates can put their foot in their mouths and derail a candidacy, Joe Carr is not a gadfly with a shady past like Christine O’Donnell. But the main reason why I can safely assert that Carr would waltz into the Senate if he defeats Alexander in the primary is that, unlike in DE in 2010 and IN and MO in 2012, the Democrats will not nominate a viable candidate for the TN Senate seat—the candidates are all unknowns with no money. So you don’t need to worry about the seat falling to the Democrats if Carr wins the primary.

[deport]

Thanks. That is the process I was envisioning. You have to tell the poll workers which party you wish to vote in.

[entropy12]

That is indeed good to hear. Thanks.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Lamar Alexander’s chief of staff killed himself after watching kiddie porn.