Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 08/06/2014 9:13:12 AM PDT by cotton1706
LANSING, MI — Michigan tea party candidates hoping to make a mark in the state House defeated a series of “establishment” Republicans on Tuesday, also losing a couple key races in what may still have been the movement’s most impressive showing since its inception in 2010.
Political newcomer Lee Chatfield of Levering scored the biggest primary win, knocking off incumbent state Rep. Frank Foster in a northern Michigan campaign largely defined by opposition to Medicaid expansion, Common Core education standards and anti-discrimination protections for gay residents.
Chatfield did not necessarily promote himself as a tea party candidate, but he scored campaign contributions from the likes of Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema and was supported by several other fiscal and social conservatives.
Tea party figureheads Todd Courser of Lapeer, Gary Glenn of Midland and Cindy Gamrat of Plainfield were among a handful of far-right candidates to win Republican primaries for open state House seats. They'll go up against Democrats in the November general election.
But it wasn’t all good news for the tea party on Tuesday night.
Another big name in the movement, Wendy Day of Howell, lost her 47th District primary to Republican Henry Vaupel. And beyond the Foster defeat, the “grassroots” failed to knock off incumbents in a handful of other competitive House races.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
Excellent news!
Bonehead’s guy in the primary against Justin Amash went down in flames.
But now we got the 4 million dollar man in David Trott replacing Bentivolio. And he will not be a Boehner Toadie?
B..Bu..But the crawler on FNC last night kept describing yesterday's results as a "devestating blow" to the Tea Party, just as it has after every primary with the lone exception of the night of the Cantor loss.
What gives?
“What gives?”
Because the Federal level is what is important to these people. In 2010, we didn’t gain a majority in the senate, but we gained 700 legislative seats and 19 legislative chambers.
The Establishment has expended ALL its energy protecting the US Senate. They haven’t had the time or the money for the lower level races. And that’s where we can change things, with an Article V convention, etc.
So can anybody fill me in on what happened to this guy? Don't know anything about him but for an incumbent to get creamed like he did, I'd think there must have been some sort of scandal.
And is one Bone head toadie better than two Bone head toadies?
But how did he lose so badly?
Is it a RINO district?
Did the GOPe enlist demoncraps to cross over ala Mississippi?
Does he just lack charisma?
Heavy RINO district.
He can move to my district and run next time. I’ve got a good congressman but 4 total terms would be plenty.
Not necessarily, may have been an anti-incumbent electorate. It was in my household.
He was an accidental Congressman. He got 46%, 51% in a general and 66% as the only candidate on the ballot in a primary. He was a good guy and I think it was worth losing the House seat to keep the foreclosure king out.
“Bentivolio tallied about 66% of the vote with about 75% precincts having reported, according to the Associated Press. Write-ins, most of which went to former state Sen. Nancy Cassis, were at about 34%.”
Steve King for instance gets 43,000 votes in a primary (as the only candidate) and less than 1% or so RINOS and independents protest and write in some other name.
U.S. House, Michigan District 11 General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
Democratic Syed Taj 44.4% 158,879
Republican Bentivolio 50.8% 181,788
Democratic David Curson 159,258 48.39%
Republican Kerry Bentivolio 151,736 46.10%
But he served a good role in bashing amnesty and bashing the neocons on Syria.
Dave Trott could still lose because he throws people out of their homes. Which is legitimate but not good politics. The biggest threat from Trott is if his donors can take over other congressional districts.
Republican primary results[2]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Kerry Bentivolio 10,280 41.69%
Republican Nancy Cassis 8,803 35.70%
Republican Carolyn Kavanagh 2,653 10.76%
Republican Steve King 1,715 6.95%
Republican Kenneth Crider 1,208 4.90%
Totals 24,659 100.00%
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