Posted on 05/05/2010 8:33:07 AM PDT by SalAOR
Dan Coats (R-IN) won the Indiana GOP Senate primary last night, defeating several primary challengers, including former Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) and RedState’s golden boy State Sen. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN). Coats will now go on to face likely Democrat challenger Brad Ellsworth, who was a member of the Stupak-12 who caved at the end. Barring some unforeseen circumstance, Coats is likely to win handily and would represent a Senate pickup in the seat being vacated by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN).
Coats is a good guy. He’s a former Senator and a solid conservative with a lifetime ACU rating of 90%. Yet for some reason, Erick Erickson at RedState, along with many of the other contributors there, found the need to practically paint Coats as a RINO.
(Excerpt) Read more at axisofright.com ...
Coats also voted for the Assault Weapon Ban and the Brady Bill.
He wasn’t solid on gun rights - point taken. But he was a fiscal conservative and pro-life, and to imply otherwise is not fair to Coats.
Like I said in the rest of the article - I preferred Stuzman. I just think that the case for Stuzman could have been made without assaulting Coats the way that it was done. He’s not Arlen Specter.
Hostetler was supported by the NRA and is a good guy. I would take Coats over Marco Rubio aka Mel Martinez 2.
My thoughts are mixed on this, This guy has some serious RINO stripes.
God protect us from the “fiscal conservatives!” That inevitably means they are libs, RINOS and sell-outs on everything else. Otherwise they’d just be known as CONSERVATIVES, wouldn’t they??!!!
I didn’t imply anything else. My point is that without guns to defend ourselves, nothing else matters.
I would call him a RINO.
If I were a DUer, I’d love the ritual FR post-primary eating of our own.
I am in no way excited by Coats. We need new blood not recycled insiders. It is a near guaranteed GOP pick up, which is the only silver lining, but it would likely have gone GOP no matter who was running in this climate. It took the Bayh family to win a national level election in that state, and even he was likely to go down this year.
OK everyone let me let you in on a secret...everyone ready...a REAL Tea Party candidate will VEVER win in a State Wide race(Senate, Gov) in a State like IN. I live in and was raised in Iowa(a State alot like IN) and there are just too many Old People and Lazy people who WILL ALWAYs vote “name recogntion”. Look at Old, Lazy RINOS like Lugar and Grassley and you will see what I mean. We need to take the field at the county level and work our way up to taking over county and State GOP(NO THIRD PARTY(this ensures Dems wins)!) Parties. We need to run local races and work our way up to State Houses and Later US House races.
NEVER
I would call him “better than Evan Bayh”....
hh
Coats has a lifetime ACU rating of 90% and is accused of being a RINO, as opposed to Hostetler who has a lifetime ACU rating of 89% and is regarded a conservative stalwart.
If you look at the numbers, Coats only got 39% of the Republican voters in a primary with 15% turnout of registered voters. I would venture to say the majority of these were name recognition voters. That said, the other 61% split among 5 other candidates. Had the "tea party" coalesced around one candidate, the opportunity was there to win.
The crackpot RINO lobbied for Cap and Trade and is a Rudy-esque gun grabber. Screw him.
You raise some excellent points. Too many people nationwide (not just Hoosiers and Iowans) just won’t vote for somebody they are not familiar with. Sad but true.
The Tea Party needs to start at the bottom of the rung and gradually work up from there. Eventually they’ll have the name recognition and then will be a contender. And yes, absolutely NO 3rd party voting allowed or Dems win!!!!!!!
If you were a DUer, you’d probably not be all that upset with a guy like Coats.
listen. You CANNOT be anti-second amendment and be considered a comnservative. You CANNOT be pro global warming and be considered a conservative. ACU has its head up its but.
Had the “tea party” coalesced around one candidate, the opportunity was there to win.
Coaslesce is something I don’t see in the Tea Party as a whole regarding candidates. On ideas, etc they agree alot more. But with the makeup of party they come from so wide of a diversed background that they’ll never as a rule coalesce around a single candidate. jmo.
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