Posted on 12/12/2009 1:36:35 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
Bickering between Republican 1st Congressional District hopeful Rep. Raul Labrador and GOP Sen. Mike Jorgenson continued Wednesday after Jorgenson accused Labrador of using personal attacks to avoid a discussion of the issues.
Jorgenson, a Hayden Republican, called for Labrador, of Eagle, to drop out of the race shortly after he launched his campaign. The Associated Press reported the two have clashed numerous times in the past.
In a Wednesday e-mail, Jorgenson cited instances he claimed show conflict between Labrador's stated position on immigration issues and his actions.
Labrador dismissed Jorgenson's criticism, calling him ill-informed on immigration issues and said his race is against fellow Republican candidate Vaughn Ward.
"I'm not going to comment anymore on his stuff," he said of Jorgenson. "Like I've said, he is a fringe player who nobody cares about what he has to say."
(Excerpt) Read more at idahopress.com ...
Idaho ping
Neither of the fueding candidates seems to be the front-runner in the Republican primary. Still, Walt Minnick gets some benefit from it.
Who would you describe as the front-runner?
Vaughn Ward appears to be the front-runner.
Jorgenson is not running himself, he’s backing Ward. He just doesn’t like Labrador and wants him out of the race.
Here’s another article on their feud.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/235/story/1000344.html?storylink=omni_popular
Okay, thanks for the link. Jorgenson is the good guy who sponsored a bill to deny illegal aliens government benefits, and Labrador is a scumbag immigration lawyer who voted against the bill. Good to see Ward is the frontrunner.
Well according to the article Jorgenson was for hiking the gas tax (which is horrid) so I don’t know how good he is.
But Labrador’s excuse for voting against the bill that would disallow illegals from getting state money appears to be very lame, the kind of thing you would expect from an immigration lawyer. If I was one I’d only work for legal immigrants.
I read both articles (including the one Impy just posted), and it doesn’t appear to be cut and dried who we should support in the primary. The articles imply that Labrador is a solid conservative with the possible exception of fighting illegal immigration, but even on that issue he has spoken out against illegals receiving any government assistance and claims to have opposed the law that led to his feud with Jorgenson (or at least extended the feud—Labrador claims that Jorgenson opposes him because Labrador voted against the gas tax hike that Jorgenson supported and because the two supported different candidates for state GOP chairman and Labrador’s candidate won) because illegals were not receiving any state aid and the law imposed an unnecesary cost upon the state. Saying that the problem doesn’t exist and that it would be a waste of money is the type of thing that people that are lax on illegal immigration say, but in Labrador’s case he appears to actually be a small-government conservative and may not be lying about this—and it is also true that if he’s an immigration lawyer he may not be in favor of his legal-immigrant clients having to carry a passport around with them all the time (or whatever the bill required).
If it was Labrador against Jorgenson I’d probably support Labrador as the more conservative candidate, Jorgenson isn’t running, Vaughn Ward is. The only things that I know about Ward is that (i) he’s never run for office before, (ii) he’s highly touted by the RNC and NRCC and (iii) he used to be a staffer for John McCain. None of those things are enough for me to support Ward (to put it mildly), and I think we need a lot more info onthe two candidates so as to make an informed decision.
I’m also at a loss on this one. Ward appeared to be making a good impression on conservatives, with his military and intelligence background. It was said that his grass-roots efforts made a good impression. I never heard that he’d had some kind of McCain connection.
I had seen Ward referred to as formerly working for John McCain, and assumed that he was a staffer in Washington, but all I have been able to find is that he was McCain’s Nevada state chairman in 2008.
BTW, I just read an article about ex-Congressman Sali (who lost the seat last year) supposedly considering running again, and the article had this very interesting paragraph about Vaughn Ward’s candidacy:
““The Ward campaign seems to be generating support from a lot of the more moderate factions of the party,” the source said. “That partially explains why Raul jumped in the race. Conservatives viewed there being a void.””
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/71957-former-rep-sali-weighing-options-in-minnick-race
Bill Sali managed to lose a district that gave 63% to John McCain after nearly losing it in 2006. That is not an impressive record at all.
Agreed. I hope that Sali decides not to jump in and that ID Republicans choose wisely between Ward and Labrador.
So do I. I just don’t know which Republican is the wise choice.
When you consider a good chunk of the ID RINO establishment hated Sali’s guts and was doing all it could to undermine him, his narrow win in ‘06 (where he got 49.9%) and narrow loss in ‘08 (where he got 49.4%) isn’t surprising at all. Sour grapes RINOs elected Minnick.
Wasn’t Governor Palin’s father working on behalf of Ward?
If Labrador was telling the truth about his vote then he’s a fine candidate. His stated position on immigration is good for what that’s worth. Other than that issue his conservative credentials aren’t in doubt. He may simply balk at anything that raises state spending unnecessarily, that’s a great position however if illegals are getting state aid then money will be saved of course so the question is ‘do they?’.
Ward’s involvement with McCain was for the general election 2008. I can’t find mention of any prior involvement with McCain either. He served as a staffer for Senator Dirk Kempthorne prior to joining the Marines.
It does give me serious pause if the RINO elements and gas tax hikers prefer him though it might just be cause he’s a strong recruit. Since he has no record in any office we can’t know for certain how conservative he is.
Gotta wait and see here I guess.
You’re correct, but Sali made avoidable gaffes. He’s good on the issues, but he’s also inept and abrasive.
I’ve read something to that effect. The Heath family (Palin’s maiden name) lives in Idaho.
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