Free Republic

The Republican Party has a big financial advantage heading into the 2014 election, thanks in large part to the growing presence of conservative outside groups. But just looking at raw dollars spent by these groups misses a key point: A huge chunk of that money is being used to tear down fellow Republicans. According to a great new study from the Center for Public Integrity's Dave Levinthal, conservative super PACs and other outside groups this year have spent nearly three times as much money directly attacking fellow Republicans ($9.7 million) as directly attacking Democrats ($3.7 million).

Nebraska Senate candidate Shane Osborn seems to have made a habit of, one might say, overreaching during this campaign.First, there was the misrepresented memo:  In an effort to defend his military service, Osborn had a friend in the Pentagon write up a memo saying that Osborn was authorized to land in China, put it on official Navy letterhead, and release it without proper authorization. As the Omaha World-Herald reported, Osborn’s campaign then circulated that memo as if it were an official Navy document.  Osborn has since apologized. Now, Osborn is claiming to have the support of 51 economists from across the country. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican National Committee wants to take more control over how the party picks a White House nominee. The RNC was to meet Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to choose members who will effectively set the calendar for 2016's long list of potential presidential contenders. If the party's chairman, Reince Priebus gets his way, the GOP will pick its nominee more quickly than during past contests and have fewer debates in which candidates could criticize each other. The RNC also was expected to put penalties in place for candidates who don't follow the committee's plans. RNC officials described...

It was pretty much a rout for Tea Party/insurgents in yesterday’s primaries, as establishment-backed candidate for the North Carolina Senate nomination Thom Tillis easily exceeded the 40% threshold necessary to avoid a run-off, while incumbent House members John Boehner (OH), Renee Elmers (NC), Walter Jones (NC), David Joyce (OH), and Susan Brooks (IN) defeated challengers from the right. But before concluding that all is hopeless, consider a few aspects of the situation.

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-NC), the frontrunner in the North Carolina GOP Senate primary, told a crowd two and half years ago that we must "divide and conquer" people on government assistance. Tillis proposed pitting those who are legitimately in need against those who made bad choices. Tillis made the comments in October 2011 in Asheville, North Carolina. They were reported by local press at the time and are being circulated now by the campaign of Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) whom Tillis is vying to unseat. They were highlighted on MSNBC"s Hardball Monday. "What we have to do...

Fearful of a third successive Democratic triumph, concerned Senate Republicans are turning against 2016 presidential bids by upstart hopefuls within their own ranks. In forceful comments to The Hill, GOP senators made it plain that they would much prefer their party nominate a current or former governor over Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.) or Rand Paul (Ky.). Those senators have created a buzz among conservative activists, but their colleagues in the upper chamber are eager to support a nominee from outside Washington with a record of attracting independents and centrist Democrats. They worry that Washington has become so...

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration wants to increase taxes on electronic cigarettes for the sake of the public’s health, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said today. “Our goal is to achieve rough parity with the tax burden on conventional cigarettes. Why? Our main concern is public health,” Sidamon-Eristoff said at an Assembly Budget Committee hearing today. “Contrary to the claims of some users, e-cigarettes have not been shown to be a ‘safe’ alternative to regular cigarettes. Nor are they a proven path to smoking cessation.” Christie’s budget anticipates $35 million in revenue by applying the $2.70 per pack regular state...

The two Republican lieutenant governor candidates, David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick, faced off Friday night in a runoff debate. The debate took place at the studios of Houston Public Media. The runoff is May 27. The latest polls show Dewhurst, the current lieutenant governor, far behind Patrick, a state senator. Here’s a look at the race from KUHF, Houston’s public radio station: It's unusual for the incumbent to be unseated, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is as many as 20 points behind state Sen. Dan Patrick in the polls.

Former governor of the largest swing state. Scion of a famous political family. Darling of the Republican donor class. Should he decide to enter the 2016 presidential fray, Jeb Bush will bring a pedigree few Republicans can match. But does he excite? Does mention of his name stir the souls of Republican voters? Is there a rank-and-file clamor for him to jump in? Our new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll casts some light on these questions, and isn’t great news for the many Republican elites pining for another Bush presidential campaign.

John Boehner’s last two serious challengers for his Ohio eighth district congressional seat both got fired during their campaigns — and one of them was told explicitly that he was getting canned for running against Boehner. The Daily Caller exclusively reported Monday that Boehner’s tea party primary challenger J.D. Winteregg was fired from his job as an adjunct professor at Ohio’s Cedarville University for running an anti-Boehner campaign ad accusing the speaker of “Electile Dysfunction.” Winteregg is challenging Boehner in the district’s May 6 Republican primary. “I would say the raciness of it, sure,” was the reason the Christian college...

Sen. Ted Cruz gathered a group of House conservatives in his office Tuesday night, talking about immigration and House GOP leadership elections slated for after the midterm elections. As CQ Roll Call first reported last October, Cruz held a secret meeting with members at Tortilla Coast during the height of the government shutdown drama. Many of these same Republicans are the agitators who aren’t happy with Speaker John A. Boehner. The Texas Republican gathered roughly 10 members of the GOP Conference at 8 p.m. Tuesday for a 90-minute session that included candy bars, crackers and soda. Cruz’s office would not...

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

(CNSNews.com) - At a news conference on Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner said there had been "no mocking" in his much-publicized characterization last week of House Republican colleagues who oppose legislation that would give legal status to illegal aliens. "There was no mocking," Boehner said. "You all know me. You know, you tease the ones you love. But some people misunderstood what I had to say, and I wanted to make sure the members understood that the biggest impediment we have in moving immigration reform is that the American people don't trust the president to enforce or implement the law...

BOSTON (AP) — Fighting to move beyond his father’s shadow, Sen. Rand Paul is crafting new alliances with the Republican Party establishment during a Northeast tour that began Friday in Boston.The 51-year-old Kentucky Republican, son of libertarian hero and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, headlined an afternoon luncheon hosted by top lieutenants of former presidential nominee Mitt Romney — a private meeting that comes as Paul weighs a 2016 presidential bid of his own. To succeed in a national campaign, however, those close to Paul acknowledge that he must broaden his appeal beyond the Tea Party and libertarian-minded activists who...

SANFORD For months, Republican Thom Tillis’ Senate campaign touted his accomplishments and focused his attacks on Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, acting like a frontrunner with his eye on November. Now, in the final days before the May 6 primary, Tillis is changing his strategy. Last week, he mailed a flier to voters that attacked his top GOP rival for not paying his property taxes on time. He also debuted a TV ad that trumpets his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Tillis hit the social conservative issues Saturday in his speech at the 2nd Congressional District GOP convention in Sanford....

On the day that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) told a local newspaper that she believed amnesty legislation could be brought to the floor by August, she met with Satya Nadella, the new CEO of Microsoft. “I believe there is a path that we get a bill on the floor by August,” House GOP Conference Chair McMorris Rodgers said last Friday. “We’re going to have to push that this is a legal status, not amnesty." That same day, she tweeted a photo of herself with Nadella from her verified @cathymcmorris Twitter account.

This strikes me as an unforced error by the Speaker of the House: "The appetite amongst my colleagues for doing this is not real good...here's the attitude: 'Ohhhhh, don't make me do this! Ohhhhhh, this is too hard!' You should hear them. You know, we get elected to make choices." In the clip, Boehner acknowledges the camera in the back of the room, so he knew full well that his comments would become public. What was he thinking? I recognize that Boehner is a supporter of immigration reform. He's said so on the record, he's said so to major donors...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a rising star in national politics, but here at home, he’s at the center of a battle with fellow Republicans. His allies are maneuvering to pack leadership slots at the Republican Party of Virginia with like-minded figures — a move they hope will bring stability to a party with little money and lots of infighting. That’s infuriated some local conservatives, who feel they are being squeezed out of positions of power and aren’t going down without a fight. They are rallying behind insurgent primary challenger Dave Brat, an economics professor with just $40,000 in...

The conservative group Heritage Action slammed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) late Thursday for mocking Republicans who have resisted taking on immigration reform. “It’s disappointing, but by now not surprising, that the Republican Speaker is attacking conservatives looking to retake the Senate,” Heritage Action CEO Michael A. Needham said in a statement. Needham said the Republican Party should be large enough for “fact-based policy debates,” which he suggested Boehner isn’t interested in having. “Unfortunately, John Boehner is more interested in advancing the agenda of high-powered DC special interests than inspiring Americans with a policy vision that allows freedom, opportunity, prosperity and...

A video clip has been posted of Speaker John A. Boehner mocking his colleagues’ reluctance to take on an immigration overhaul today while campaigning for re-election in Ohio: