Posted on 07/07/2015 5:38:40 PM PDT by VinL
Ted Cruz has methodically built a roster of state leaders to help him fire up social conservatives in the South. He may have gotten more than he bargained for.
In the last month alone, three of his state co-chairs have drawn fire over comments related to everything from Sharia law to the victims of the African-American church shooting in Charleston, S.C. That dynamic was thrown into sharp relief in recent weeks, as the debate in South Carolina unfolded over whether to take down the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds.
One state co-chair said the victims of the Charleston shooting “waited their turn to be shot.” Another has emerged as the voice of the opposition to removing the rebel flag from the statehouse, likening that effort to a “Stalinist purge.” Separately, in Tennessee, his state chairman had once accused a Muslim state appointee of being a “Shariah compliant finance expert,” a comment that sparked outrage in some corners when he was tapped for the position with Cruz in early June.
When asked about his surrogates’ inflammatory comments, the Cruz campaign had their backs.They are respected in their states, they are terrific organizers, they are working hard to help win the nomination and we have every confidence they have the ability to do that,” said Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler.
Their ability to hold their tongues is more in doubt.
On Monday, South Carolina state Sen. Lee Bright, the co-chair who is a leading opponent of taking down the flag, generated headlines and raised eyebrows in South Carolina and beyond when he gave a vehement floor speech opposing the flag removal. In the address, he warned that “the devil is taking control of this land” and went on an anti-gay rights tangent, calling the pro-gay rainbow symbol the “abomination colors.”
(Cruz’s campaign has said he believes the flag is a state issue.)
“I don’t know how that helps,” said Chip Felkel, a prominent longtime Republican operative who lives in Bright’s district, of the implications of the state senator’s remarks for Cruz. “It’s guilt by association.”
Despite Bright’s efforts, the Senate voted this week, 36-3, to take the flag down. The state House of Representatives takes the bill up next. State Rep. Bill Chumley, another Cruz co-chair who will be voting in the House, has also indicated opposition to removing the flag. He was the one to comment on the Charleston victims, a remark for which he has since apologized.
“These gentlemen — a term I’d use loosely at this point — maybe they feel they represent their constituents, but the train has left the station, it’s time to turn the page and they are not doing themselves or Sen. Cruz any favors,” continued Felkel, who worked for George W. Bush but is currently unaffiliated in the presidential race. “The longer this is drawn out, the uglier it gets, [with] national implications. Every one of these guys are looking at who’s on their team, who their supporters are and that’s going to carry over to other states. I think it cannot be a positive based on how this is playing out in the media.”
The backlash was made more clear this week in the early-voting state of Iowa. On Monday, GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann told Radio Iowa, while speaking about a local incident involving the flag, that he “will not tolerate” having it connected to the GOP.
“There are 17,000 young Iowa men that are laying in graves that fought against that very flag and everything it stood for,” Kaufmann said. “There’s really not a lot of conversation to have about that.”
But Cruz’s spokesman said that “of course” the campaign stands behind Chumley and Bright, in addition to Kevin Kookogey, the Tennessee state chair.
egarding Bright, Tyler said, “He’s an elected official, a state senator, you have to garner a certain amount of support to be an elected state senator…he has agreed to do this on behalf of the senator and we are grateful for it.”
Bright, who represents the conservative Upstate region, mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last cycle. In 2012, he was former Rep. Michele Bachmann’s South Carolina chair (Chumley also worked for her), and then switched his allegiances to Ron Paul after she dropped out.
“I would encourage presidential candidates to let us deal with this,” Bright said of the flag issue in an interview with POLITICO last month. “It’s deeply rooted history for a lot of us. I’m not going to stand by and let our ancestors’ memories be besmirched. It’s one thing to just take down the flag. They want us to concede that the soldiers that fell for the Confederacy were a bunch of racists, and I’m not going to concede that.”
When South Carolina’s Republican leadership first called for the flag to come down late last month, following the Charleston shooting, Cruz’s campaign said the senator would leave the flag issue to the state. His campaign maintained that position Tuesday following the Senate vote. That position stands out in a GOP field where many other presidential contenders lauded the state officials’ efforts to take it down.
“It’s a state issue, let them resolve it,” Tyler said. Bright “is a South Carolinian…it’s completely appropriate he argues the point of view he has. I don’t think it prevailed, but he argued it.”
Cruz is used to being out of step with the Republican establishment — his 2013 spearheading of a government shutdown, and his support for a group that primaried GOP incumbents in 2014, cemented that dynamic. And his position on the Confederate flag in South Carolina, along with his alliance with Bright, ensures that he’s at odds with the GOP leadership of South Carolina, too, note some Palmetto State operatives.
“A lot of people Cruz has associated himself with are extraordinarily wrong on the flag,” said a senior South Carolina Republican official. “…There’s no depth he won’t stoop to to pander. He’s not well-liked by the Republican establishment, and this is more confirmation of that.”
Of course, Cruz isn’t trying to win over the establishment. Plenty of his deeply conservative supporters are energized by people, like Cruz’s Tennessee chair, who promise to take on Sharia law. And in South Carolina, there remains a pocket of Republican voters who do not want to see the Confederate flag come down, though it’s not clear how large that group is. Other Republican presidential candidates, who supported Gov. Nikki Haley in her call for the flag to come down, may have alienated those voters — but Cruz hasn’t.
“From his standpoint, it’s not bad politics,” said someone working for a rival campaign. “…If you look at, how do you distinguish yourself in a crowded field, in a state as important as South Carolina, that would be one way of doing it. As a long-term strategy, it may be short-sighted, but they are playing the short game.”
It’s not just the establishment calling for the flag to come down, though. Prominent Christian conservatives, including leading Southern Baptists, have also taken that position.
Glenn McCall, South Carolina’s Republican National Committeeman and a supporter of bringing the flag down, said he thinks that at on the national stage, the flag issue may blow over by the time of the primary. But at least at a state level, he said, those who don’t back bringing down the flag are losing a chance to embrace Christian unity.
“Those supporting him will support him, those supporting other folks are not going to change their opinion one way or another,” he said of Cruz. But at a state level, among those who oppose taking the flag down, “I just hate that they’re missing an opportunity — they’re all missing an opportunity — to stand with their brothers and sisters in the faith.”
Freedom of speech and standing for principles that the Democrats don’t like is verboten in the Obama Reich.
When a liberal says angry, what they mean is a “conservative with a damned good point”
It’s an article from “Politico.”
I’ve tried to read it twice, but I’m either too bored to get it’s message or too dumb.
LOL.
Sorry: its message.
I’m not really THAT dumb.
LOL.
BINGO!!!!!
I don’t get it. If this is hurting Cruz, then why report on it? Shouldn’t Politico just grab the popcorn and sit back?
Desperation because Cruz won’t dance to the media tune.
Cruz needs to step up and put an end to this else he is seriously over. Defending the disgraced, defeated, and traitorous Confederate flag, which today stands for racism and bigotry, is indefensible and if these are the people he is surrounding himself with and if he is unwilling to show some leadership, he disqualifies himself. Bad enough he said it was a state issue and would not say his opinion, which by these actions say he supports the flag. Incredible.
angry liberal - “RIGHTEOUS anger”, indicates idealism and high moral standards. Admirable.
angry conservative - HATEFUL anger usually characterizing bigots, demagogues, violent individuals. Shameful and dangerous.
Pollutico is a liberal publication and as such, they know who frightens the left. It’s no wonder they’re smearing Cruz.
Cruz is far and away the best conservative choice in this race. Even Pollutico knows it.
This was settled, even the Carolina senate voted 26-3 to remove it, everyone has reached this conclusion. This is not a conservative vs liberal issue. Defending the flag is on the wrong side of this.
We stole this country from the Native Americans. Should we all leave now?
At this point, who cares what the opinion of the RINO political consultant class thinks?
‘thinks’ should be ‘is’, X@#!it.
Yet it’s folks on Katie’s ideological side out there beating people up, breaking windows and tossing bricks.
The Liberals are scared sh*tless about Cruz.
Right.
Cruz writes his own music.
We don’t have to leave but it appears that we’re supposed to cower before the march of the leftist fascists.
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