Posted on 06/30/2014 11:16:26 AM PDT by right-wing agnostic
DENVER—Mario Nicolais is the kind of candidate who could help the Republican Party win back the suburban voters it has lost.
He's fiscally conservative but socially moderate, a member of the NRA but also a founder of a Republican group that champions gay rights. And on this afternoon at a local bar, he's clearly at ease chatting up the fans who've turned out to watch Mexico play Brazil in the World Cup. Hispanics make up 23 percent of his state Senate district, and Nicolais knows that Republicans will need to peel off some of them to have any hope of winning in November.
But he won't be on the ballot then.
Nicolais lost in the Republican primary to businessman Tony Sanchez, a tea-party-aligned opponent who was recruited into the race by conservatives looking to block Nicolais's path to the nomination. And he wasn't the only establishment-backed Jefferson County Republican to lose against a more conservative rival. In a neighboring district, military veteran Lang Sias, once a recruit for Congress, lost to a first-time candidate who had the backing of the conservative grassroots.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Actually, that’s a program of bringing the GOP back to its Reagan roots — see sigline.
Yep. When a states swings from +5 RED to +5 BLUE, the RED team (the GOP) is doing something very wrong.
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