Free Republic

It's a new poll, but the numbers are much the same. An automated telephone survey conducted last month found 51 percent of potential West Virginia voters would pick Rep. Shelley Moore Capito over Secretary of State Natalie Tennant in the race for retiring U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller's seat. The poll found 34 percent of potential voters would support Tennant, while 15 percent are not sure who would get their vote. Pennsylvania-based Republican polling firm Harper Polling conducted the survey, which included 640 likely voters. The poll has a 3.9 percent margin of error. In a question directed only to potential...

WASHINGTON — Next year was supposed to be a prime opportunity for Republicans to retake the Senate. And for a while, everything seemed to be breaking their way: a wave of Democratic retirements, a fluke in the electoral map that put a large number of races in states that President Obama lost, a strong farm team of conservative Senate hopefuls from the House. Then the government shut down. Now, instead of sharpening their attacks on Democrats, Republicans on Capitol Hill are being forced to explain why they are not to blame and why Americans should trust them to govern both...

In another edition of the polls the media won't cover, between September 29 and October 6, Democrats have lost a four point lead in Rasmussen's generic ballot that asks voters if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in the upcoming midterm elections. That poll is now tied at 40% - 40%. At the end of last month, Democrats led 42% - 38%. The media continue to run headlines that read, "Poll Shows GOP Taking Share of Shutdown Blame," which is true. Most polls show Republicans are at a single-digit deficit when compared to Democrats (still, a vast improvement...

Citizens United is endorsing Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) in the crowded Georgia Senate primary. The nod from the conservative group will give the Tea Party favorite a boost — and establishment Republicans new reason to be concerned about the race. Establishment Republicans have publicly fretted about Broun winning the primary, fearing he might not be the party's best candidate in a general election. The congressman regularly refers to President Obama as a socialist and communist, and has said evolution and the big bang theories are lies "from the pit of hell."

Wolf, an admirer of conservative Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, had sharp words for the GOP and its contribution to the federal debt. “The Republican Party has this mindset that you should get in line and that you should bow to whoever is in charge and you should ask their permission and you should go along to get along,” he said. ”But where has that got us? I can give you 17 trillion reasons why that has been a failure, and it’s our party that did that.” Wolf has steadily been building his public profile with appearances on...

Growing anger at congressional Republicans over the government shutdown could be enough to push the GOP out of power in the House, according to a new poll.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s campaign is said to be in “meltdown mode” based on internal polling done in the wake of his conflicted votes on Obamacare last week. Already vulnerable among GOP voters due to a host of ideological betrayals (including his support for energy tax hikes, internet tax hikes, amnesty for illegal aliens and domestic spying), Graham’s tortured “opposition” to Obamacare has reportedly caused his perilous position to erode even further. How much further? FITS was not provided with specific details on the poll – but one source close to Graham’s camp tells us the organization has been “temporarily...

As Speaker John A. Boehner (R.-Ohio) struggles with the budget crisis, a Troy, Ohio schoolteacher and Tea Party activist announced Sept. 30 he will challenge Boehner in the 2014 GOP primary. Joseph D. “J.D.” Winteregg, who is a founder of the Ohio Accountability Project, a grassroots organization in Ohio-8, a congressional district bordering Indiana, said he is motivated by the gulf between the interests and values of the district and Boehner.

Texas Senator John Cornyn is in trouble with the tea party. At the Texas Tribune policy conference last weekend six tea party leaders were asked if want a strong candidate to challenge Cornyn in the Republican primary. Five of them said yes. Listen 0:003:09Story airing on KERA 90.1 Included in that group were former gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who now heads We Texans a limited government group; Northeast Tarrant County Tea Party President Julie McCarty; and Republican state representatives Matt Krause from Fort Worth and Jonathan Stickland from Bedford. The fifth and most vocal critic was JoAnn Fleming. Her email...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Greetings, my friends, and welcome to what the Democrat Party is considering its opening move in the 2014 campaign: a government shutdown that looms in front of all of us. It's the latest, and it is the next Democrat Party campaign move. It is felt and it's being covered by the media totally in historical ways. It is not being adapted to anything really happening. If I were to tell you that I don't even know what really is happening here, I probably would be more honest than not. You know, I've been doing this for 25...

If Democrats aren’t worried about President Obama’s “Problems? What problems?” response to the multiple glitches and snafus of his ObamaCare rollout, they should be. The public is deeply suspicious of the law and it wouldn’t take much to create an electoral backlash that could send dozens of incumbent Democrats home for good in November 2014. We are being inundated daily with news stories highlighting the problems with, and those caused by, the legislation. Obama has indirectly acknowledged these problems by postponing several elements of the legislation. ,,,, Higher costs means fewer votes. Obama once claimed ObamaCare would drive down health...

U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, said this morning that he will not seek re-election in 2014. Bachus, 65, said in a statement released by email that he will retire from congress at the conclusion of his current term in December 2014. Bachus, who has represented the state's 6th congressional district since 1993, is the senior member of Alabama's congressional delegation.

A lot of people have been talking about breaking away from the GOP lately. ZoNation: No Jeb Bush and No Third Parties: http://youtu.be/q5hmxyceUYQ

On the Motion to Invoke Cloture on H.J. Res. 59 (Vote Number 206) - http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00206 - 25 republicans voted “yea”: Alexander (R-TN)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried Cochran (R-MS)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried Collins (R-ME)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried Cornyn (R-TX)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried Graham (R-SC)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried McConnell (R-KY)-Up for re-election in 2014-needs to be primaried Chambliss (R-GA)-Retiring in 2014-needs to be replaced Johanns (R-NE)-Retiring in 2014-needs to be replaced Ayotte (R-NH) (not up for re-election) Barrasso (R-WY) (not up for re-election)...

South Dakota state Rep. Stace Nelson (R) met with a handful of national conservative groups last week in Washington — an indication they continue to search for a challenger to former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) in the state’s open Senate race. The Republican primary field is already wide, and a bruising contest could jeopardize a pickup that is crucial to GOP efforts to take back the Senate in 2014. Nelson met with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) office, Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth. “To say things went well is an understatement,” Nelson told The Hill....

State Representative Joe Carr, Senator Lamar Alexander's (R-TN) Tea Party backed challenger in the 2014 Tennessee Republican Senate primary, blasted Alexander today for his refusal to stand with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and defund Obamacare. "Senator Lamar Alexander has refused to join Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to defund Obamacare claiming it would cause a government shutdown. Although Senator Lamar Alexander agrees with Obama on this point, it is false," Carr said in a statement released by his campaign today. "Obamacare is bad for America and we should be doing everything possible to stop it," Carr continued. "I choose...

A distant cousin of President Obama is mulling a primary challenge to Kansas Republican senator Pat Roberts for 2014. Milton Wolf, a radiologist in the Sunflower State, is the president’s second cousin once removed. Wolf is a prominent tea-party activist in the state and nationally who has made several media appearances, such as on Fox News as well as penning columns in the Washington Times. Last month, he sent an e-mail to Republican activists in the state asking if they wanted more senators in the mold of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, according to Politico. He also criticized Roberts’s record...

A new Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll of the upcoming South Carolina senate primary, released last night, shows incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham to be facing a strong primary challenge in his bid for reelection next year. While Graham polls at 42 percent, that is well below the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. Should a runoff take place, he would run against the second place candidate, and if most of that other 58 percent unified behind the challenger, Graham could find himself being fired by Republican primary voters in his bid for another six-year term as South Carolina's Senior Senator. Aside...

Ten months out from his primary election against three different Tea Party candidates, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has dropped to below 50 percent in the polls, meaning he is particularly vulnerable to a runoff strategy conservatives have employed against him. Graham received just 42 percent of support from likely South Carolina GOP voters in an Aug. 25 poll of 500 likely GOP voters conducted by Landmark Communications and Rosetta Stone Communications, UnitedLiberty.org reports. “These numbers should be of concern to the Graham campaign. The senator fails to reach 50% of the vote against any of his opponents,” Rosetta Stone Communications...

The first rule for President Obama: It’s all about 2014. The second rule for President Obama: See Rule No. 1. Make no mistake: The president couldn’t care less about the plight of Syrians, the 1,500 gassed to death — including nearly 500 children. It’s all about 2014. Win the House, reign supreme. Consider this: Mr. Obama made his dramatic Rose Garden statement Saturday — then headed to the golf course. Congress has no plans to cut short its 30-day vacation, and the president did not call lawmakers back. So much for urgency. The conventional wisdom is, as usual, wrong. Losing...

The tea party settled one question this afternoon at a meeting to audition candidates to challenge Sen. Lamar Alexander in next year’s GOP primary. Both Joe Carr and Kevin Kookogey promised they'll drop out of the picture if tea partiers are rallying behind the other guy. Carr, a three-term state representative from Murfreesboro, took the pledge in his opening statement to the crowd of roughly 300 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. It was the first of five meetings to vet potential challengers to Alexander and to conduct secret straw polls. At the end of September, tea partiers will add...

Operation Black Storm is a Project of Patriot PAC ALL AMERICANS MUST FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IT’S NOT JUST ‘ANGRY WHITES’ OUT TO IMPEACH BARACK OBAMA… WITH FDR MESSAGE, WE CAN WIN IN 2014! “Those who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.” – 54th Massachusetts Infantry, 1863 The Obama administration and its Capitol Hill underlings dismiss America’s rising call for impeachment of Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama as a rightwing, white fringe movement. Graphic: Only Racists Oppose Obama They are WRONG. It is a fight to preserve and protect our liberty. Case in point: The National Black Republican Association...

The senior senator from South Carolina may be the Bob Bennett of 2014 The angry rhetoric directed at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) by Tea Party conservatives is cranking up in volume heading into what could be a very contentious Republican primary in 2014. Graham has long been a staple of South Carolina politics, serving four terms in the House before winning the Senate seat vacated by Strom Thurmond in 2002. But now — just as happened when conservative Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) was mercilessly ousted by the Tea Party in 2010 for not being conservative enough — a number of...

LAKE WYLIE, S.C. — Some of the early shots in the Republican primary battle against Senator Lindsey Graham have been fired from this tiny community on the northern border of the state where the Civil War began. Mr. Graham's challengers so far in the Republican primary campaign include Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from the Citadel. A small group called Carolina Conservatives United, one of dozens organized loosely under the flag of limited government, low taxes and strict adherence to the Constitution, sent out images last week of a milk carton bearing Mr. Graham’s face and asked Gov....

Gov. Chris Christie today will endorse Republican candidate Steve Lonegan, his former rival, for the U.S. Senate special election in October. Christie, who is running for re-election this year in the gubernatorial race, will appear with Lonegan today at the headquarters of the Hunterdon County Republican Committee to make his endorsement at 4 p.m. U.S. Sen. Jeffrey Chiesa (R-N.J.), Christie's pick to fill the seat temporarily after Sen. Frank Lautenberg's death in June, is slated to endorse Lonegan on Wednesday. The Christie endorsement -- coveted by GOP politicos across the country, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year -- marks...

State Representative Joe Carr announced on Ralph Bristol's Nashville talk radio program on Tuesday that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. Carr will compete against incumbent Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in the party's August 2014 primary. Bristol had promised his listeners on Monday that someone would make a "major announcement" that will "alter the Tennessee political landscape," and at 7:10 in the morning Joe Carr delivered on that promise. "I am announcing as a candidate for the United State Senate," Carr told Bristol. Carr left no doubt with whom he will stand in...

Sarah Palin could rehabilitate her political career with a 2014 Senate run, Bill Kristol said Sunday. “I think the way Palin would possibly resurrect herself, if that’s the right word, or rehabilitate herself I guess a better way of putting it, [is] run for Senate in Alaska in 2014,” The Weekly Standard editor said during a Web interview with ABC. Kristol said the former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee would be “pretty interesting” as a freshman senator after beating an incumbent in an election. “I’m not urging that, I’m just saying if I were her adviser I would say,...

Democrats are in danger of getting disappointed in Kentucky, where early poll numbers belie McConnell's big advantages. If people are really buying Wendy Davis and a "blue Texas," Democrats might be doubly disappointed. Where Democrats could end up pleasantly surprised is Georgia. The conditions for an upset might be brewing in the Peach State, where Saxby Chambliss is retiring and Democrats have stealthily become close to competing on a more regular basis. It might even be a better bet for Democrats in 2014 than Kentucky. I was initially skeptical of whether Democrats could compete in Georgia in 2014. So skeptical...

NEWARK — Newark Mayor Cory Booker has easily prevailed in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, the Associated Press projects.

Georgia Republicans are becoming increasingly worried that a divisive primary coupled with a strong Democratic candidate might lead to a loss of the Senate seat of retiring Saxbe Chambliss. The Hill: Recent polling shows the two candidates Republicans are most anxious about - Reps. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) - leading the pack. Whoever emerges from the clown-car primary, with seven candidates and counting, will face a candidate Democrats are high on in a state where shifting demographics benefit their party. "Gingrey has a history of making some gaffes, and Broun it seems like it's a gaffe every...

Tea party groups have publicized their desire to find primary challengers for Republicans they don't like as well as vulnerable Democrats who are already in office. Here are a few tell-tale signs that a tea party challenger might jump into a race near you.

When U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R (at right) announces his candidacy for Senate at a barbecue this evening, he will be doing so as an early frontrunner in a 2014 race that could ultimately determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

It was inevitable that the field of primary challengers to Lindsey Graham would grow, but the sheer number of ambitious Republicans seeking to oust the South Carolina senator may end up being the undoing of them all. With a new opponent entering the race over the weekend and another poised to join soon, the question is whether enough variables could fall into place to cause a different result this time. It’s possible, according to several South Carolina GOP operatives who spoke with CQ Roll Call in recent days. But it would take an extraordinarily large amount of money, extensive support...

Does Mitch McConnell’s primary challenger have a chance? Watch and decide. (VIDEO)

Interesting developments: Matt Bevin is challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky GOP primary. Checking his biography, I’m glad to see that Bevin is a graduate of Washington & Lee University, a U.S. Army veteran, and a small business owner — exactly the kind of outsider “not a politician” profile anyone would want in a Tea Party candidate. If grassroots conservatives in Kentucky rally behind Bevin, I think we can start chilling the champagne for Mitch McConnell’s retirement party. However, defeating the party’s Senate leader in a primary would be completely unprecedented. If this is Star Wars, Luke...

Downers Grove business owner and West Point graduate Doug Truax (True-axe) will announce Monday morning he is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for Illinois’ senate seat currently held by Dick Durbin. “Dick Durbin and his crew have been in charge in Illinois and the United States for years. Their policies are not working, yet they continue to pursue them again and again as we sink deeper into economic stagnation,” Truax says in an announcement video posted to Youtube.

It’s only just begun, but the reelection battle of Mitch McConnell – the top Republican in the Senate – is already shaping up to be the marquee race of the 2014 midterms. Start with the primary challenge Senator McConnell faces from Matt Bevin, a wealthy, tea-party-backed businessman, reportedly willing to spend his own money. If McConnell makes it past Mr. Bevin, he’s poised to face likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state and member of a well-connected political family, in the general election. Add to the mix McConnelll’s mediocre job approval ratings in the state – only...

An immigration advocate who talks to Democrats? Lindsey Graham is ripe for a Tea Party takedown. David Catanese reports from Goose Creek, S.C., where the senator’s second GOP opponent, Nancy Mace, unveiled her campaign. In her 14-minute kickoff speech, Nancy Mace never once uttered the name of the senior South Carolina Republican senator she’s aiming to oust. But the 35-year-old public relations consultant did name-check Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee—vividly illustrating the anti-Washington Tea Party campaign template she’ll attempt to emulate in her primary challenge to Lindsey Graham. “Unfortunately our senator has a track record of...

This wasn’t the revolution the tea party had in mind. Four years ago, the movement and its potent mix of anger and populism persuaded thousands of costumed and sign-waving conservatives to protest the ballooning deficit and President Obama’s health care law. It swept a crop of no-compromise lawmakers into Congress and governor’s offices and transformed political up-and-comers, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, into household names. But as many tea party stars seek re-election next year and Rubio considers a 2016 presidential run, conservative activists are finding themselves at a crossroads. Many of their standard-bearers have embraced more moderate positions on...

FANCY FARM — For the first time, Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell shared the stage with challengers who want his job and stuck around long enough at Saturday’s Fancy Farm picnic to hear one of them speak. Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes — and later Democrat Ed Marksberry and McConnell’s Republican primary challenger Matt Bevin — slammed McConnell for being in Washington too long and not doing enough to help Kentuckians, fix what ails Washington or both. McConnell, for his part, ignored Bevin completely, both in the senator’s speech and by leaving before Bevin addressed the crowd, which organizers estimated...

Mickey: Stay down, Stay down Rocky 1974 John Rambo: Live for nothing or Die for Something Rambo 2008 I was watching Morning Joe today and as usual the entire table was united in asserting that Ted Cruz and the Tea Party caucus was wrong to consider fighting to de-fund Obamacare highlighting a piece by Krauthammer This is about tactics. If I thought this would work, I would support it. But I don’t fancy suicide. It has a tendency to be fatal. They stressed the wisdom of Krauthammer’s assertion that the GOP should not fight. It seemed an odd assertion since...

Madison Project PAC Endorses Matt Bevin for Senate in Kentucky Madison Project Chairman Jim Ryun: “The only way to change the lackluster leadership in the Republican Party is to replace the career politicians who lead the party. Matt Bevin is brave enough to storm the castle of the GOP Establishment and challenge the sitting minority leader, and we are proud to stand with him and with millions of conservatives who feel disenfranchised by unprincipled GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell.” Washington, DC – The Madison Project PAC announced today that it is endorsing Louisville businessman Matt Bevin for Senate against Senator...

This wasn't the revolution the Tea Party had in mind. Four years ago, the movement and its potent mix of anger and populism persuaded thousands of costumed and sign-waving conservatives to protest the ballooning deficit and President Obama's health care law. It swept a crop of no-compromise lawmakers into Congress and governor's offices and transformed political up-and-comers, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, into household names. But as many Tea Party stars seek re-election next year and Rubio considers a 2016 presidential run, conservative activists are finding themselves at a crossroads. Many of their standard-bearers have embraced more moderate positions on...

The first woman to graduate from the Citadel is planning to challenge South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary next year. Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace will head to Goose Creek Saturday to announce her Senate campaign, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. “This isn’t about one senator,” Mace told TheDCNF. “The only way to change Washington is to change who we send to Washington.” “Washington is out of touch,” she added. “Voters are frustrated. They’re looking for someone authentic.” In a June fundraising email, the Senate Conservatives Fund listed Graham as one of three Republican senators the...

West Virginia state Sen. Evan Jenkins announced Wednesday that he is switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and will challenge longtime Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) in 2014. “West Virginia is under attack from Barack Obama and a Democratic Party that our parents and grandparents would not recognize,” Jenkins said. “I am proud to join the Republican Party in fighting Washington’s assault on our state, our freedoms, and our jobs.” Jenkins is the latest in a growing number of Democrats from Southern state legislatures to make the switch — with many of them coming in Louisiana and Mississippi,...

Gotta figure her lead would be even bigger without Joe Miller in the field here. Her nomination for the taking? Alaska should be a top tier pick up opportunity for Senate Republicans next year…but their top choice of a candidate is Sarah Palin. 36% of GOP primary voters in the state say they’d like Palin to be their standard bearer against Mark Begich to 26% for Mead Treadwell, 15% for Dan Sullivan, and 12% for Joe Miller. Palin leads mostly based on her strength with ‘very conservative’ voters where she gets 43% to 20% for Treadwell, but she also leads...

Do you believe that Mary Landrieu has performed her job as US Senator well enough to deserve to be reelected or do you think it is time to give a new person a chance? TOTAL RE-ELECT 39.2% TOTAL NEW PERSON 50.6% See here the complete poll results. Magellan Strategies BR surveyed 1,800 likely Louisiana voters between July 29th and July 30th, 2013. The margin of error was 2.3% at a 95% confidence interval. This survey was not authorized or paid for by any campaign or political organization. The survey was conducted using automated telephone technology.

Tea party groups in Kentucky have finally united behind one candidate. Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin today is declaring a primary challenge to Mitch McConnell. He’s going after McConnell’s record in the Senate. Having talked to a number of tea party groups in Kentucky, they are pretty united around this challenge for now. McConnell is wasting no time responding to Bevin with an attack ad calling him Bailout Bevin. I’m just not sure that’s the wisest first attack from McConnell given that McConnell authored it and pushed it through the Senate by loading it with sweetheart deals. From Congressional Quarterly: The...

House Democratic leaders warned Tuesday that Congress must enact immigration reform this year because the task becomes much more difficult in the 2014 election year. "We've seen how in an election year it's very difficult to get a lot done, and that's unfortunate," Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. "You hope that we can get things done next year, whether or not there's an election at hand. We should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. "But there's no doubt that the closer you get to elections, the...

Christine O’Donnell is considering a new bid for the Senate. The conservative activist who rode a tea party wave to victory in a Delaware special election primary four years ago is interested in challenging Sen. Chris Coons (D) in 2014, the Wilmington News Journal reports. O’Donnell would have difficulty winning over skeptics in the Delaware GOP, many of whom see her as a liability. After beating moderate Republican Rep. Mike Castle in the 2010 primary, O’Donnell lost in a landslide to Coons amid a series of missteps and damaging revelations about her past.