Chamber gearing up to take out GOP incumbents

politico.com ^ | Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman

[kcvl]

Despite more than $33 million spent supporting candidates in the 2012 Congressional races, Chamber-backed candidates lost 36 out of the 50 elections in which the Chamber participated.

In late 2013 the Chamber announced it would distribute campaign contributions in “10s” of Republican primary elections to oppose the Tea Party movement and create a “more governable Republican party.” In early 2014 Tom Donohue clarified that the push would be to elect “pro-business” members of Congress “who favor trade, energy development and immigration reform”.

Tom Donohue was Born in Brooklyn to a production manager at the American Can Company.

From 1969 to 1976 he was the US Official Deputy Assistant Postmaster General.

he told Newsday, “you could make a deal in the government. We went up more times to see old Gale McGee, [D-WY, chairman of the Senate Post Office Committee]. He went down under some stairway, we had a drink in the middle of the day, and we talked about Wyoming and then they’d all cuss and swear and tell stories and then, the deal gets fixed.”

That’s not true anymore. So, now we can say, `Well, that’s great, Mr. Chairman. We have great respect for you. How about lunch on the 30th and great, that’d be great. Meanwhile we’re going to go beat the crap out of you. And go to all your guys and get their votes.’ You can roll a chairman now. Or other chairmen will help you roll ‘em.”

In 2014, Donohue said that if the Republicans didn’t change their immigration policies then they “shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016”.

[smoothsailing]

I like the part that many of them refuse to contribute to the NRCC.

That’s gotta blister Boehner’s butt!

LOL

[Paladin2]

Boner needs a very rugged primary and a rugged general.

[BlueCat]

According to what I have heard - and considering my source I’m sure it’s accurate - Tom Donahue got in bed with unions several years ago. Unions naturally hate tea partiers, so they have that in common.

[Lazamataz]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to challenge some House Republicans in primary elections, frustrated after much of its agenda has been stymied by a small pocket of conservative GOP lawmakers.

The Chamber of Communism is rapidly becoming my number one corporate enemy.

If you are a CoC business, I will NOT patronize you.

[smoothsailing]

I’d also like to see him challenged for Speaker again, and this time defeated. As a back bencher he’d have more time to play golf and work on his tan.

[grania]

The Chamber of Commerce has to an unacceptable degree hijacked “tea party” sentiments. They’ve been defining lower taxes as the only issue....got their way on that one, then moved on to games as usual. They’ve been also working to paint that as the only conservative issue.

[grania]

Big disappointment....where is Mia Love? She sure did come begging to us when she was looking to lose without conservative support.

[Jane Austen]

Unbelievable! Not only do conservative GOP candidates have the media against them but also the Chamber of Commerce!

[G Larry]

I’m in the middle of a pretty conservative county and we’ve taken over here.

We’re not fools, distracted by shiny objects or partial victories.

School Boards, County Boards, State Board.
Fighting to retain gains and positioning to make more.

[kcvl]

Chamber of Commerce President Wants Tea Party to 'Feel Some Heat'

Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - his offices, at AFL-CIO headquarters

Tom Donohue, the President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, vowed to make the Tea Party “feel some heat” in 2014 in order to get amnesty legislation passed.

the Chamber is planning to spend at least $50 million to crush the Tea Party, largely because of the movement’s opposition to amnesty legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers and which the Chamber has been coveting.

He said the Chamber has “put more people in the field” since 2012 and is “prepared for this election.” Donohue said that the group would focus “intently on candidate selection” to ensure they are “successful” in influencing the outcome of races.

“If you can’t make them see the light, then at least make them feel some heat,” Donohue said. He stated the Chamber would have the “resources” to impact the 2014 midterm elections.

[Lurkinanloomin]

The Cheap Labor Express has almost totally corrupted the GOP. Now they want to finish the job.

For the Republic to survive, the GOP must die.

GOP-RIP

[kcvl]

2011

GOP Civil War Erupts: Tea Party Freshman Rips Chamber CEO Tom Donahue

But Donohue sent a message those freshman during a speech before the Rotary Club of Atlanta: Fail to raise the debt ceiling and “we’ll get rid of you.” Today, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) appeared on Fox News, where he tore into Donohue for threatening House Republicans:

I found Tom Donahue’s comments outrageous, tone-deaf, totally establishment, and doesn’t understand at all where we’re at right now…If Tom Donahue is more comfortable having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker next year because he wants to get rid of all of us tea party, fiscally-conservative freshman who came here on a mission to save our kids from the debt we’re placing on their backs, then fine. He can have Nancy Pelosi as his Speaker.

A Chamber spokesman later said that Donohue was joking and that the comment was merely part of “pleasant and humorous banter going back and forth” between Donohue and his audience. But Walsh said during the interview that he wasn’t buying it. And many other GOP freshmen aren’t either.

“This is typical Washington, D.C., insider politics. The idea that head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would rather pick fight with the 87 freshmen than with Democrats, that’s pretty disappointing. But that’s what’s different about the freshman class. We don’t listen to folks inside the beltway, we listen to constituents across the country,” said freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS). Freshman Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) added, “as far as I am concerned, [the Chamber’s] leadership forfeited its position as a voice for small business when it became comfortably entrenched in Washington’s status quo.”

[Lurkinanloomin]

Yes, my district threw out the weasel Eric Cantor and replaced him with Dave Brat.
I’m sure Dave Brat is on ther list, he took down one of their bought and paid for stooges.

[kcvl]

Tom Donahue is an arrogant blowhard!

He is running more people away from the Chamber than helping because he is damned and determined that he is going to get amnesty. The only people who still support him are the Washington entrenched Republicans who are beholden to big business dependent on Washington.

******

Exclusive-Mark Levin: Tom Donohue’s ‘Chamber of Horrors’ Is Democrats’ Secret Weapon to Keep Senate

After the Associated Press reported the Chamber’s involvement with Obama on executive amnesty, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) excoriated the group in a statement.

“It is chilling to consider now that these groups, frustrated in their aims by our Constitutional system of government, are plotting with the Obama Administration to collect their spoils through executive fiat,” Sessions said.

During the primary in Georgia, the Chamber backed Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) over Perdue. Perdue attacked Kingston as being backed by what he said was the “pro amnesty” Chamber of Commerce, because the Chamber supported the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration bill and has worked with President Obama on his plans for an executive amnesty. The Chamber fired back at Perdue, saying he was “crying like a little baby.”

Perdue was one of the first national signers of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) anti-amnesty pledge. The pledge calls on signers to oppose any legal status for any illegal aliens and to oppose massive increases in legal immigration that would detriment American workers. Perdue’s signing of the pledge actually forced the Chamber-backed Kingston, who lost to Perdue in the primary runoff, to sign it as well.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/10/24/exclusive-mark-levin-tom-donohue-s-chamber-of-horrors-is-democrats-secret-weapon-to-keep-senate/

[smoothsailing]

She could be a member, there is a degree of secrecy to who is and who isn’t.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Six months after the House Freedom Caucus was founded, it’s still unclear what exactly it is — or will be — beyond two key characteristics: its commitment to secrecy and to being a thorn in the side of House Speaker John A. Boehner.

There is no official roster. Leaders of the hard-line conservative group won’t say exactly how many members are in the caucus, which has already made its mark. The last count, based on conversations with members who are trying to keep track, was 42, but members are being added almost every week; CQ Roll Call has observed 38 attend at least one caucus meeting.

http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/house-freedom-caucus-forms-fight-club/

[Nickname]

That was a big one.

I couldn’t remember if that was in 12 or 14. It’s becoming a blur of election flurry.

[mrsmith]

There’s a possibility the Va GOP will try to redistrict Brat out: http://atr.rollcall.com/virginia-redistricting-republican-jockey-for-seats/

Keep your eye on that.

[mrsmith]

I think his lieutenants are the better targets.
Some of them are in ‘purple’ districts and would lose the General election if a conservative ran in it.
Yet they have plenty of wherewithal to survive a primary challenge (with crossover votes).

[spintreebob]

Nick, CoC’s Kingston v Perdue is good example. In 2013 Kingston told me he could get more crumbs from the table than any of the other 7 candidates. And that was probably true. That is why the CoC backed him from day 1.

Kingston and Perdue made the runoff. Kingston had the backing, not just of the CoC, but of every “conservative” incumbent congressman in GA, and of Red State’s Erik Erickson. So some of you are wrong, we can be fooled.

Perdue won the runoff, and the final, because he had the backing of Herman Cain, currently the most powerful voter delivery vehicle in GA. In the Senate, Perdue has been on the right side in splits with senior RINO Isaackson, especially on CoC issues. The CoC cares much more about their Ex-Im bank than immigration. They are not capitalists. They are corporatists.

Strategy? We should learn from the successful KMart and JCP boycotts. KMart boycott started with the Rosie O’Donnell stupidities but quickly built a coalition of gun activists, pro-family activists, etc. JCP customers reacted to Ackmann trying to turn Penneys into Abercrummy and Filth. Both stores lost their best and most loyal customers...mostly to Walmart of their political activities.

If we pick a CoC target, it has to be a target where we shop. If we boycott Starbucks, their sales will go up just as Kroger’s sales went up when the gun-control wackos attacked Kroger.

But we might want to spend all our energy on political races and not corporate boycotts. We should be active in local politics regardless of whether there is or isn’t a CoC target.