Posted on 08/20/2014 3:28:50 AM PDT by Din Maker
Republican establishment favorite Dan Sullivan will take on vulnerable Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in the fall after winning his party’s hotly contested Senate primary on Tuesday.
Sullivan, his state’s former attorney general and natural resources commissioner, beat two Republican rivals for the nomination. He faced Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and Tea Party favorite and 2010 GOP primary winner Joe Miller.
The Associated Press called the race with 80 percent of the precincts reporting. Sullivan had 40 percent of the vote, while Miller had garnered 32 percent and Treadwell placed third with 25 percent. Sullivan led Miller by over 7,000 votes out of over 86,000 cast. Treadwell had conceded defeat late Tuesday night, surrounded by supporters, including his three children, at the downtown Anchorage venue where election results were posted.
Sullivan, with millions of dollars at his disposal and major GOP players behind him, had been considered the front-runner in the race. Begich already was treating him as the presumptive nominee, with allies running costly attack ads against him.
Sullivan now assumes the GOP mantle as he competes for a major prize in the Republicans’ midterm playbook. The party needs six seats to flip control of the Senate, and Begich’s is one of their top targets.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
When the sorriest US senator in Washington, a one Kay Hagan in North Carolina, who Freddie the Freeloader could beat, beats the Karl Rove-backed, carpetbagging Tom Tillis and returns to Washington to be a rubber stamp for Obama, come back and tell me now electable RINOs are.
You illustrate perfectly why conservatives lose, because you’re more concerned with showing your tail feathers than actually winning something, because your sense of self-importance is way bigger than your sense of reality.
Conservatives are not losing. They don’t control the GOP. The GOP losership currently serving as Barack Obama’s doormat is filled with “moderates” who are little more than Chamber of Amnesty shills.
You illustrate perfectly the GOP low info voter and party loyal hobbyist who push the GOPe corportists to “victory” in primaries.
Until you folks understand the current beltway GOP has no interest in governing in a conservative matter, no interest in defending our constitutional rights and no interest in substantively engaging the Dem agenda the American people will continue to lose.
True, but conservatives don’t help themselves either when they run 2+ candidates against the moderate or liberal. Sadly it’s often more like 8 candidates.
If we want to take the party over, we got to get smarter and elect the electable conservative, not the one that strokes the ego. Too many conservatives love those long shot candidates because they’re generally more accessible and it’s easier to be in the inner circle. Too many conservatives are also wannabe power brokers and poohbahs who sign on to these candidates to feel important.
Trust me, being in politics in Iowa and us being first in the nation, it is almost a cancer here. I’ve seen more opportunity squandered by the dick swingers who’ve got to have their hand controlling the lever or forget it, and try to pass it off as supporting the ‘true’ conservative candidate. It’s greed and lust for power, pure and simple.
I agree, I wish she and Mark Levin hadn't started snacking on conservative Senator Mike Enzi because she was desperate for seat in the halls of power. She should have run in Virginia.
If I ran the GOP this is what I’d do.
First, no debates. Why provide fodder later for the Democrats in the General, especially with liberal moderators.
Second. Primaries are in the order of percentage of the vote for the Republican in the previous general election.
Third. After the third primary, only the top two should remain. All others need to drop out.
They lost last night, in case you hadn’t noticed. Guess that shoots your little pet theory. So keep swinging your schmeckel around and projecting your GOPe blame and cover schtick to avoid the problem.
If people had voted for one conservative last nite, the GOPe candidate would have lost. Simple as that. You’re entitled to your opinion, but not your own set of facts.
Forgot to add, the OTHER Dan Sullivan, the Mayor of Anchorage, was nominated for LT. Governor. LOL.
“In other news Wyoming’s RINO Governor Matt Mead wins reelection over 2 challengers with a paltry 55% to 32% for Dr. Taylor Haynes (who was seeking to become the first Black Republican Governor) and 13% for very unpopular former Schools Chief Cindy Hill. It’s very likely a single strong conservative candidate would have upended Mead, who won a wide open primary 4 years ago with a very meager plurality. There’s a race we could have used a runoff in.”
First of all—and before DJ beats me to the punch—Dr. Haynes would not have become the first black Republican governor. The first black Republican governor was P.B.S. Pinchback, who served as governor of Louisiana from December 29, 1872 until January 13, 1873. And the second black Republican governor was Melvin Evans of the U.S. Virgin Islands, who served from 1969 to 1975, the final four years of which were as the territory’s first elected governor (and who later served a single term in Congress as the USVI’s delegate).
As for how a single strong conservative challenger might have defeated Mead, maybe. But I wouldn’t say that “[there’s a race we could have used a runoff in,” given that Mead got 55%, so he wouldn’t have faced a run-off.
The lesson is three person primaries favor the incumbent.
I meant we could have used a runoff in the *2010* primary which Mead won with under 29% and only a few hundred votes ahead of Rita Meyer. 29%, jeez.
“P.B.S. Pinchback, Melvin Evans “
Right right. I should have said elected Governor, of a State. Perhaps if that fellow in Wisconsin can beat old man LaFollette, he might be a future Governor. A shame about Jennifer Carroll in Florida.
I’d forgotten that Mead had eked out his 2010 primary win with such a low vote percentage. 29% is just criminal.
“Only 2 primary days left, AZ, FL, VT, and the OK runoff next week. And DE, MA, NH and RI on September 9th. Very late primaries. Many are far too early, Texas and Illinois back in March, but I don’t like the really late ones either.”
I have to agree with you on primaries being too late and to early. Early June works best. It gets informed people to the polls and then allows for some lull in the summer before gearing up after Labor Day. Sept primaries are certainly an advantage to the incumbents (who are weakly or un-opposed) as they can be geared up for the final battle where states with undecided challengers have to work and spend money not knowing if they are going to move on to the next level.
Interestingly, 4 New England states are part of that list with primaries remaining.
Technically, Pinchback was not elected Governor. He succeeded to the post as Lieutenant Governor when incumbent Henry Warmoth was impeached. Pinchback didn’t run for the next term as he was expected to assume the Senate seat to which he was duly elected, but refused his seat on a challenge, and the seat remained vacant for a few years until the Democrats were able to fill it.
Also, Melvin Evans was not the second Black GOP Governor, either. He was the 1st (and only) elected Black Governor to date. However, he was the fourth Black GOP Governor. Following Pinchback, President Eisenhower appointed two Black GOP Governors in the Virgin Islands: Archie A. Alexander assumed the office in 1954 but resigned the following year after a scandal involving road-building contracts; Dr. Walter A. Gordon formally succeeded Alexander the same year and served until 1958 when he was promoted to Federal Judge.
Mel Evans was technically appointed by Nixon in 1969, but won the first territorial election called in 1970.
“That’s because too many conservatives are either purists, or combative, chest puffing, dick measuring blowhards who want to leverage their candidate to grab party control and satisfy their delusions of grandeur, instead of just getting a decent conservative candidate elected by siding with the best one.”
Thank you for saying what I’ve though for many years There is a fine line between getting good candidates while still being able to be pragmatic. Sometimes, half a loaf is better than no bread at all, but the types you describe don’t begin to see it that way.
I didn’t like Romney, he was last on my list, but at the end of the day I did vote for him. And still today, there are those here who think that withholding their vote was the “right” decision. I just want to know how that has helped our country. It escapes me how letting Obama continue his terrorist ways was somehow better than Mitt. Let the flames begin.
Sadly, alot of times you don’t even have to compromise, because Conservative A is 98.99% conservative and electable, while Conservative B is 99.01% conservative and worthless. Yet Conservative B will play the purity card, mercilessly stab Conservative A over meaningless nuances, and suck off 20% of the vote, then Conservative A loses to the RINO in an easy win GOP seat.
Don’t even get me started on the Libertarians.
“Don’t even get me started on the Libertarians.”
Yes, although some of what Libertarians believe comports with conservatism, they have been the “spoilers” in many elections. Sometimes even to the point of taking RAT money in their efforts.
Treadwell is more pro-amnesty than Sullivan.
Sullivan is like Romney and the Chamber picking Joni Ernst over the Kyoto candidate. A similar thing with Jack Kingston being endorsed over Perdue. Kingston was more conservative than Perdue.
They clearly made a choice out of the establishment candidates. If they backed Sullivan, maybe Miller would have won.
Sullivan at least says he wants a secure border and Treadwell is as pro-amnesty as his mentor Murkowski.
Miller was the only trustworthy choice.As it is now the ball is in his court to run third party or at least get Sullivan to make some concessions on immigration at least on the campaign trail. The GOPE won’t even use effective ads on immigration.
I think the last 3 Senate primary performances have been much better than expected.
The GOPE has 24 incumbent Senators to protect in 2016. McCain, Hoeven, Ayotte and Moran are strong contenders to be primaried.
They are in small deep red state where talking about the economy and Obamacare wont do. The non-Miller candidates are refusing to talk about the brilliant talking point of undocumented Democrats in the lower 48 taking political power from Alaska gun owners.
“Conservative” Thom Tillis(R-NC) is attacking Kay Hagan(D) over amnesty when he is more pro-amnesty than she is.
He also said the state would make it clear to federal elected officials in Washington, D.C., that North Carolina expects them to tackle the issue.
“The other thing we’re going to do is send a very clear message to Washington that they can make our job a lot easier if they would deal with the issue that they’ve kicked down the road – Republicans and Democrats – for many, many years.”
I agree.
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