GOP tries to upend NC campaign backed by tea party

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/24/10 | Mike Baker - ap

[Walrus]

Tea Partiers -— we’re here, and we ain’t going away.

[Drango]

depict him as a pot smoker who has called himself the messiah.

Some losertarians have tried to claim the Tea Party as theirs and have volunteered their way into informal leadership. Most of the Tea Party and GOP want nothing to do with this fringe segment.

[goodnesswins]

Okay, who here from North Carolina has the scoop on this guy?????

[9YearLurker]

This at least sounds like a case where the GOP party vetting and rejection is appropriate, likely sparing us general election heartache.

[piytar]

“It’s a risky move for state and national party leaders trying to harness the power of the tea party movement without letting it spin out of their control.”

The TEA Party isn’t under their “control.” That’s why the fGOP hates us more than they oppose the demscum.

“Republican leaders in both Raleigh and Washington, however, are worried about his electability in November if he wins a primary runoff next month.”

Utter bull. They aren’t worried about his electability.

They are terrified of it!

[MNJohnnie]

as run an anti-establishment campaign with vows to dismantle entire branches of the federal government

Yeah we cannot have any crazy talk like that going on. /s

[Smokin' Joe]

So when was the divorce? How long ago? Some "slackjawed doper millionaire"??--doesn't seem very likely running as a 'cut government' type. Most of those are Hollywood.

But iirc, the GOP ran a prominent candidate who had some 'troubles' at one time, and while he didn't end up getting a divorce, well...

If the GOP craps on someone with popular right winged (conservative) appeal, they may well end up crapping in their messkit. If the guy is just trying to hijack the TEA Partiers, it'll show.

After all, the GOP wouldn't try to hijack/corral/take over/co-opt or otherwise snag that voting bloc and control it, now would they?

[MamaTexan]

They're publicizing court documents about D'Annunzio's past legal, martial and business troubles and denouncing him as unfit for office

Which goes to prove that without their thinly-veiled attempts at conservatism, they ARE just like the Democrats.....

but at least the Democrats save it for the other team.

-----

Methinks all this TEA is starting to give the GOP the jitters.

[piytar]

“This at least sounds like a case where the GOP party vetting and rejection is appropriate, likely sparing us general election heartache.”

Maybe, but I’ve seen the fGOP backstab and attack TEA Party candidates in favor of RINOs - some of whom then flip to “independent” or ouright demscum - to take that at face value.

As a result, I trust the fGOP (formerly Grand Olde Party) only slightly more than I trust the democrat party.

[9YearLurker]

Fair enough and I feel similarly about the GOP, but if those divorce filings and doctors findings are there for the uncovering, having this guy win the primary would have been a disaster.

[keepitreal]

In Hoke County divorce records, his wife said in 1995 that D'Annunzio had claimed to be the Messiah, had traveled to New Jersey to raise his stepfather from the dead, believed God would drop a 1,000-mile high pyramid as the New Jerusalem on Greenland and found the Ark of the Covenant in Arizona. A doctor's evaluation the following month said D'Annunzio used marijuana almost daily, had been living with another woman for several months, had once been in drug treatment for heroin dependence and was jailed a couple times as a teenager.

The doctor concluded that his religious beliefs were not delusional. A judge wrote in a child support ruling a few years later that D'Annunzio was a self-described "religious zealot" who believed the government was the "Antichrist." The judge said he was willfully failing to make child support payments.

So, in the general election, who would vote for a former heroin addict who has failed to pay his child support? Who has paid for his children's upkeep, the government? Are we willing to vote for anyone who espouses limited government, no matter what?

[csmusaret]

He isn’t running as a Tea Party candidate. He is running in the GOP primary runoff trying to become the Republican Party candidate.

[contrarian]

http://www.carolinapoliticsonline.com/2009/11/11/interview-with-tim-dannunzio-candidate-for-us-house/ Here is all you need to know about the candidate. IN a nutshell... against amnesty,global warming is BS.. Cap and trade...NO!!... BUMBO health care “gov’t has no business in health care and is unconstitutional for it to mandate health care... Yep ... bad candidate SARC!!!!!

[ryderann]

The GOP in NC is all about controlling the party minions. I dropped out and became unaffiliated 15 years ago.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Sometimes candidates claiming to be Tea Partiers are lousy candidates, and if that’s the case with D’Annunzio it is certainly smart to support the other GOP candidate (a conservative named Johnson IIRC, who is a former sportscaster well known in the Charlotte area) over D’Annunzio in the primary run-off. The issues that Tea Partiers (and most other conservatives, BTW) care about won’t get solved by running guys who can’t win due to personal baggage. For example, we had an excellent chance of defeating Democrat Melissa Bean in the IL-08, but a ne’er-do-well named Joe Walsh (not the guy from The Eagles) claimed the Tea Party mantel and won the nomination, and only later did it come out that he’s a tax deadbeat who lied in his FEC disclosure forms.

So the mere fact that D’Annunzio is a Tea Partier does not mean that he is necessarily our best bet to defeat Kissell in the NC-08 and go on to have a conservative voting record in Congress. Remember, for every Les Phillip (the extremely impressive Tea Partier running for Congress in Alabama) there may be a Joe Walsh or an Ed Lynch (the guy who won the GOP primary for the special election in FL but proved to be deadbeat whose house was being foreclosed and ended up losing by 2:1 to the Democrat).

[GOPRaleigh]

This guy is a kook. Be VERY careful about supporting him. His past is very suspect...

[AuH2ORepublican]

Have you taken the time to compare D’Annunzio’s views with those of his Republican primary opponent, Harold Johnson? Johnson is also opposed to amnesty and cap and trade, would fight to repeal Obamacare, and does not seem to buy into that Global Warming crap: http://voteharoldjohnson.com/issues/

And Harold Johnson is not a former heroin addict who refused to make child-support payments.

[1776 Reborn]

Who said he is the Tea Party choice? D’Annunzio’s doesn’t stand a chance against Kissel, and Johnson is very well liked.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Several FReepers on this thread assume that D’Annunzio is the Tea Party choice given what they wrote in the AP article that was posted. I think that I made clear in my post that D’Annunzio claims to be a Tea Party candidate.