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Idaho Dem Minnick faces tough race (Chamber, 'tea party' find a Democrat to endorse - over Labrador)
Washington Times ^ | 7/07/10 | Joseph Weber

Posted on 07/07/2010 8:55:40 PM PDT by Libloather

Idaho Dem Minnick faces tough race
Chamber, 'tea party' find a Democrat to endorse
By Joseph Weber
8:37 p.m., Wednesday, July 7, 2010

On paper, Walt Minnick should be toast.

The Idaho Democrat barely squeaked into the House two years ago, winning 51 percent of the vote in a conservative district that preferred John McCain over Barack Obama in the presidential election by 26 percentage points. His district is the most lopsidedly Republican district in the country being represented by a Democrat.

But Mr. Minnick, a top target of the GOP this fall, has two unlikely champions in his corner: A leading "tea party" group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have backed him over his Republican challenger, state Rep. Raul Labrador.

"Those endorsements are not just about Walt," said campaign spokesman John Foster. "They're reflective of Idaho, which has a reputation of being ultraconservative, but with a long, long history of being independent."

The unusual endorsements do not guarantee an easy race for the Blue Dog Democrat. The most recent poll - taken by the state's only polling firm, weeks before last week's Chamber of Commerce endorsement - showed Mr. Labrador leading by 12 percentage points, but with 30 percent of respondents undecided. In a year in which the GOP is banking on major gains in both houses of Congress, the website RealClearPolitics lists the race as a tossup.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS: democrat; idaho; minnick; teaparty
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Something in the potatoes?
1 posted on 07/07/2010 8:55:45 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
2 posted on 07/07/2010 9:04:32 PM PDT by Cyber Ninja (Rebuke, Renounce, Repeal, Repeat,...)
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To: Libloather

Ask Minnick one simple question Idaho voters, who is he going to vote for speaker?


3 posted on 07/07/2010 9:12:09 PM PDT by Patrick1
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To: Libloather
Dims in the mountain west tend to be what most here would call RINO’s and the GOP is Conservative.
4 posted on 07/07/2010 9:52:03 PM PDT by montanajoe
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To: Libloather

The story concentrates on Minnick and briefly describes Labrador. I would think that criticizing McCain would be a plus among conservatives in Idaho. The Chamber of Commerce probably endorses Minnick because of his support of guest worker programs.


5 posted on 07/07/2010 10:33:12 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Libloather

If you want to end the Democrat majority you HAVE to defeat Minnick, he enables Pelosi and the most leftwing Congress ever.


6 posted on 07/07/2010 11:11:00 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: InterceptPoint; Impy; Clintonfatigued; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; Minus_The_Bear

This is very unfortunate. If all the conservatives would coalesce around Labrador, Minnick would have a much harder time hanging on. A endorsement for Minnick is an endorsement for Pelosi.


7 posted on 07/08/2010 6:22:39 AM PDT by randita (Visit keyhouseraces.com for a list of vulnerable DEM and must hold GOP House seats.)
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To: randita

Ironically, Labrador won the primary on the strength of his Tea Party support.

Minnick has been allowed by Pelosi to cast conservative votes on just about every high-profile bill, but he is still a vote for Pelosi to organize the House, and his voting record has been 100% pro-abortion. Labrador needs pro-life groups to come down hard on Minnick and counteract these imprudent endorsements from the Tea Party Express and the Chamber of Commerce.


8 posted on 07/08/2010 6:41:50 AM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll protect your rights?)
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To: AuH2ORepublican

DId the NRA endorse Minnick? I know they’ve made some questionable endorsements and a rumor is that they are considering endorsing Reid (might be Reid propaganda). If I were a member of the NRA, I would give them a piece of my mind and maybe threaten to cancel my membership if they endorse one more Democrat.


9 posted on 07/08/2010 7:11:27 AM PDT by randita (Visit keyhouseraces.com for a list of vulnerable DEM and must hold GOP House seats.)
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To: randita; InterceptPoint; Impy; GOP_Raider; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; yongin

There’s more bad news. Walt Minnick has raised $1.9 million, and combine that with the conservative endorsements, it’s clear he may very well survive even in a GOP landslide.


10 posted on 07/08/2010 2:37:45 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Obama's more worried about Israelis building houses than he is about Islamists building atomic bombs)
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To: Clintonfatigued

True, but then again, he might not. His first vote is for Pelosi for Speaker, and the rest just doesn’t matter. That fact must be ingrained in the voters heads over and over.


11 posted on 07/08/2010 2:55:40 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: Clintonfatigued; randita; InterceptPoint; Impy; GOP_Raider; fieldmarshaldj; yongin

Minnick will lose for the following reasons:

1. The district is so conservative and so Republican that it gave President Bush 68% in 2004, probably his best performance outside of Texas or Utah.

2. The anti-incumbent, and anti-Democrat, mood is very strong this year.

3. This time, he’s not running in the 2008 environment, and he’s not running against Bill Sali.

4. Raul Labrador will campaign.


12 posted on 07/08/2010 3:38:29 PM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll protect your rights?)
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To: GOP_Raider; Chief Engineer; Delphinium; EternalVigilance; Keyes2000mt; Sir_Ed; ...
The FR Idaho Ping List
FReepmail GOP_Raider to be on or off this list

13 posted on 07/08/2010 11:37:59 PM PDT by GOP_Raider (Please consider the logging and timber industries when printing this tagline)
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To: randita
"If all the conservatives would coalesce around Labrador, Minnick would have a much harder time hanging on."

And if Labrador wasn't a smarmy immigration lawyer who's admitted to representing illegal scumbag aliens, and is squishy as hell on immigration reform, conservatives would have long since coalesced around him. As it is, here in the Idaho 1st CD, we have the choice of an incumbent who's a friend of Nancy Peloser and a challenger who's a friend of the invaders.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

14 posted on 07/09/2010 6:37:34 AM PDT by wku man (Who says conservatives don't rock? Go to www.myspace.com/rockfromtheright)
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To: AuH2ORepublican
The district is so conservative and so Republican that it gave President Bush 68% in 2004, probably his best performance outside of Texas or Utah.

I live in this district, and I can tell you that we are constantly being invaded by Californians and Mexicans. They always vote Democrat. We outnumber them for the moment, but not for long. I do feel, however, that Labrador will win this.

15 posted on 07/09/2010 10:04:29 AM PDT by America_Right (The best thing about the Obama Presidency: McCain isn't the President!)
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To: wku man

“And if Labrador wasn’t a smarmy immigration lawyer who’s admitted to representing illegal scumbag aliens”

Representing them for what?

Don’t forget that John Adams represented the British officer who was in command at the Boston Massacre (Probably fomented by Samuel Adams...ah, Sam, where are you now that we need you again?)

Under our system, even a guilty scumbag is entitled to representation.

If Labrador did something disreputable, could you please post more information on that? Thanks.


16 posted on 07/09/2010 11:54:42 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: America_Right

I live in that district, too, and voted for Sali twice. I’ve met him. He stinks much less than most politicians.

I keep wondering, though, if there’s a Tea Party movement here, then where the hecky-darn are they? If they’re up to anything at all, they’re doing a really crappy job of getting the word out.

I heard word-of-mouth about a couple of things they did a while back, long after the fact, but saw absolutely no advance notification.


17 posted on 07/09/2010 11:57:55 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: America_Right

“we are constantly being invaded by Californians and Mexicans”

And Somalians, and Bosnians, and whatever Mooselimbs they can scrape up out of some third-world sewer.

Back in 2006 I read that some commie swine in Washington decided that Idaho didn’t have its fair share of slums, so they were going to route a big share of all dark-skinned immigrants here.

Bastards should have taken them into their own homes. But then, leftards are always very generous with other people’s resources.


18 posted on 07/09/2010 12:02:29 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: dsc
Something disreputable? How about missing a vote to get a bill that he himself sponsored (by the way, in his 4 years in the Idaho House, Lab has missed something like 170 votes) out of committee? He and Rep. Phil Hart sponsored HB 497 in this year's session...which would have ostensibly held employers of illegal scumbag aliens responsible for giving them jobs.

I say ostensibly, because it didn't require using e-Verify, and was therefore toothless. Only...Labrador wasn't there to even get his own bill out of committee! He was too busy campaigning, which shows how serious he is about "immigration reform".

So, where does Lab stand on "immigration reform"? He's worked extensively for the Idaho Dairymen's Association on immigration issues, which apparently has no reservations about representing as many as 40,000 illegal scumbag aliens (source: http://www.idahofreedom.net/blog/immigration-group-says-illegals-idaho-cost-taxpayers-195-million). Take a gander at the IDA's stance on "immigration reform":

"IDA seeks immigration reform that...
◦Allows temporary workers to be in the United States longer than 10 months
Does not require our employees to leave the country
Does not require our employees to 'get to the end of the line' to continue being our employees
◦Does allow them to remain being our employees on a renewable but temporary basis
◦Does not lead to citizenship or amnesty, that itself leads to citizenship. We support the routes to citizenship already in place.

Here's the URL if you want to check it out yourself:

http://www.idahodairymens.org/immigration_reform.php

With that in mind, how serious do you think Labrador is about fixing the illegal scumbag alien nightmare we're experiencing right now? Look, I don't know what you're willing to excuse in the name of getting another "R" on the rolls, but to me, an "R" like Labrador is no better than a "D" like Minnick. At least Minnick is:
1) a businessman, and
2) a veteran!
Labrador is neither. He also wants to make Puerto Rico a state, and what would that do to the balance in Congress?

I say again, those of us in the Idaho 1st CD have to choose between a friend of Nancy Peloser and a friend of illegal scumbag aliens.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

19 posted on 07/09/2010 2:33:10 PM PDT by wku man (Who says conservatives don't rock? Go to www.myspace.com/rockfromtheright)
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To: dsc
But being as you're from Idaho, you already know all this, don't you?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

20 posted on 07/09/2010 2:36:56 PM PDT by wku man (Who says conservatives don't rock? Go to www.myspace.com/rockfromtheright)
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