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Tea Party Alive and Kicking After Kentucky Cliffhanger
newsmax.com ^ | 5/20/15 | John Gizzi

Posted on 05/20/2015 3:54:51 PM PDT by cotton1706

At a time when many pundits were concluding that the "tea party" movement had run out of steam, a favorite of the conservative, grass-roots movement demonstrated Tuesday in Kentucky that rumors of its demise may be greatly exaggerated.

A year after he was soundly defeated in his nationally watched primary challenge to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, Louisville businessman and "tea party" favorite Matt Bevin was the apparent winner of the Republican nomination for governor in Kentucky’s closest-ever statewide primary.

In topping a four-candidate race by 83 votes out of more than 214,000 cast, Bevin overcame two well-known contenders who had heavily outspent him. Second-place (33 percent) finisher and State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer had already won statewide office before, and multimillionaire real estate developer Hal Heiner placed third (29 percent) after spending nearly $4 million of his own fortune on the campaign. Rounding out the race was retired State Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott with 7 percent.

"But Hal Heiner’s negative campaign really hurt James Comer and Hal Heiner himself," State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer told Newsmax as the votes were coming in. "In many of the counties that [Comer] won, Matt Bevin was finishing second."

Discussion of whether Heiner hit fellow "establishment" Republican Comer especially hard and possibly below the belt dominated the campaign in its twilight days. For weeks, Comer had been defending himself against charges that he had physically and verbally abused a onetime girlfriend when they were college students.

Heiner strongly denied he had anything to do with the charges, but Comer’s campaign insisted there was a tie between Heiner’s lieutenant governor running mate and the blogger who had been pushing the abuse story against Comer.

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: elections; teaparty

1 posted on 05/20/2015 3:54:51 PM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706
Senator Mitch McConnell. He’s no fan of Bevin’s (obviously) and was in Comer’s corner, as was Rand Paul.

Rand Paul is consistent.

“Rand Paul to steer clear of Mississippi runoff”

“Rand Paul: It’s a ‘misnomer’ to say McConnell isn’t conservative”

“Rand Paul To Campaign for Romney”

March, 2013—”Rand Paul endorses Mitch McConnell in 2014 Senate race, won’t back tea party challenge”

“A week after about 150 tea party activists rallied in opposition to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander’s re-election” “Rand Paul of Kentucky said here Monday that he hopes Alexander doesn’t get an opponent and wins re-election.”

2 posted on 05/20/2015 4:02:44 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

Don’t know if you are listening to CSpan where Rand Paul is speaking, but a short while ago he said that we owe an apology to all the Black and Brown people who have been locked up for crimes detected by the Patriot Act. Besides being a panderer, some of the things he says would make you believe he’s an order of fries short of a Happy Meal. So now we should just ignore crimes that are committed because he doesn’t agree with current law. What a disgraceful position for a Senator to take!


3 posted on 05/20/2015 4:15:52 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
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To: conservativejoy

Yeah, I don’t get this support some people here have for him. The minute he sold out to Mitch McConnell should of told all of us whose side he’s really on. If he really believes in reducing the size and scope of the federal government you’re not going buddy up to a big government RINO. Forget it Rand.


4 posted on 05/20/2015 4:28:19 PM PDT by dowcaet
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To: conservativejoy

A very revealing thing about Rand Paul is that he not only panders to various groups, but that he almost always says things in a way, as to create the worst kind of anti-conservative sound bite.

He doesn’t just say it, he says it in the way that a conservative hating columnist would say it, he is spreading negative seeds and language among people that feeds their prejudices and ignorance about conservatives.


5 posted on 05/20/2015 4:31:09 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: dowcaet

Too true! You can learn a lot about a man by who his friends and his enemies are. A President Cruz is going to immediately begin to lobby the Senate to get new leadership and you can bet Mitch knows it!

I hope Rand gets primaried and that his opponent loops that clip in a campaign ad. He is not fit for the Senate much less the Presidency.


6 posted on 05/20/2015 4:52:47 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
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To: cotton1706

Rand Paul never was interested in working for the people of KY. He just used the KY tea party voters to launch his ambitious drive to win the presidency. He’s never going to realize his dream.


7 posted on 05/20/2015 4:55:29 PM PDT by lakecumberlandvet (APPEASEMENT NEVER WORKS.)
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To: ansel12

To me, Rand comes off not just as Flakey, but also as a bit of a Hot Head. He has a very short fuse when someone challenges him or disagrees with him. Not Statesman like.

You are right, he does hurt the image of Conservatives and does nothing to advance what we believe.


8 posted on 05/20/2015 4:56:55 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
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To: conservativejoy

Getting rid of Boehner and McConnell and their allies from the leadership is long overdue. A President Cruz would certainly give Mitch the Turtle and Crying John their walking papers.


9 posted on 05/20/2015 5:00:39 PM PDT by dowcaet
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To: ansel12

Paul followers are the same as any cult............


10 posted on 05/20/2015 5:11:23 PM PDT by rrrod (at home in Medellin Colombia)
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To: dowcaet

btt!


11 posted on 05/20/2015 5:18:02 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
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To: cotton1706

Is this the same Newsmax that has contibuted heavily to the Clinton Foundation? I thought so. No thanks. Although I am not going to tell JR how to run his house, if this were my website, I would block all links to Newsmax.


12 posted on 05/20/2015 6:23:09 PM PDT by Labyrinthos
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