Oregon Ping
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Posted on 08/25/2005 2:56:14 PM PDT by LdSentinal
PORTLAND, Ore. - Libertarian Tom Cox has joined the GOP, after being tagged as a spoiler in at least two previous elections. Cox ran for governor in 2002, and got more votes than Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski's margin of victory.
Some Republican had charged that Cox's candidacy cost their candidate - former state legislator Kevin Mannix - the race.
Mannix is preparing for a rematch against Kulongoski in next year's gubernatorial race.
He said Cox is a welcome addition to the Republican party.
Cox hinted that he may even support his former opponent in the 2006 race for governor, saying that while he has not made up his mind he intends to actively support the Republican nominee in the general election.
Cox also ran for attorney general in 2000, a race that Mannix ultimately lost to Democrat Hardy Myers.
Sounds good. I have been to Oregon a few times and outside of Portland, there are alot of conservative people there. A small 'l' libertarian would make sense out there.
Great...just what we need. More leaders that believed the wrong things for most of their lives, then proclaim to see the light so they can continue to stay in office..geeezzz
Cox would certainly make a better showing in the Metro Area than Mannix did, but, I don't think he would sell well in Baker County. IMO Cox would stand a better chance winning the general election, but, wouldn't win the primary.
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people blaming their own problems on others. Usually it's democrats who do it, so cases like this are especially annoying when republicans try to play the same game.
For the record, Cox did not cost Mannix the governorship. Mannix and the Oregon Republican Party managed to lose the election all by themselves.
How did they do it? By proposing a budget that was, for all practical purposes, identical to the increasing tax and spend socialist boondoggle budget proposed by the democrats.
The Oregon Libertarian party received so many votes simply because their proposed budget for Oregon was the only one based on sensible reduction of government waste and spending and reduction of taxes. In other words, the Libertarians were the only party with the budget and tax plan which the Republicans should have proposed.
The lesson here is that Republicans do not win elections by pretending to be democrats. Whenever they try, they lose (just as they should). Libertarians don't spoil elections for proper Republicans, but they do tend to keep RINOs out of office.
Republicans win elections by being Republicans, and that means lower taxes, less government waste, and greater government accountability. Hopefully, the Libertarian party taught the Oregon Republicans that lesson in 2002. Regardless of what Cox does with himself, unless the Republicans in Oregon becomes again the party of fiscal responsibility and budgetary sanity, they'll lose in 2006.
Great...just what we need. More leaders that believed the wrong things for most of their lives...
Great!!!
...... More FReepers who have no clue what they're talking about but take every opportunity to gripe and whine.
Oregon Ping
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I have been in Oregon since January. That freaky pervert governor has to go. I know there is the Republican state senator of my senate district (Jackson and Josephine Counties) running, but I don't trust him for pushing that civil union crap, no different than a Daemon-rat - - and I will not vote for his return to the state senate either...
Cox and Mannix I do not know... Depends where they stand on the issues without equivocating... If I don't like either of them, maybe I will leave it blank and move down the list, checking off Republicans until I get to the initiatives...
I have been in Oregon since January. That freaky pervert governor has to go. I know there is the Republican state senator of my senate district (Jackson and Josephine Counties) running, but I don't trust him for pushing that civil union crap, no different than a Daemon-rat - - and I will not vote for his return to the state senate either...
Cox and Mannix I do not know... Depends where they stand on the issues without equivocating... If I don't like either of them, maybe I will leave it blank and move down the list, checking off Republicans until I get to the initiatives...
Libertarians across the country would be wise to do what Mr. Cox did. You'd have a lot greater and more immediate impact within the GOP than fooling around with a make-believe political party.
I have been here since January, the pervert union issue will be the defining issue for me. Republicans (like my state senator who is running, ain't gonna make it on my ballot). Sodomy is not a family value...
For you, maybe.
But for many, many voters, the whole gay marriage issue is a side show. Most Americans, while disapproving of the whole gay marriage issue, aren't gay and aren't directly affected by it. But most working Americans, and therefore, almost the entire Republican constituency, pay taxes, and are therefore directly affected when government takes their hard earned dollars and pisses them down the socialist rat hole.
When the Oregon legislature, in the middle of a recession no less, tried to ram a big fat tax increase (with concomitant spending) down the throats of working Oregonians, it was the Libertarian party which stepped up to the plate, did all the grunt work, and foiled the legislature at the ballot box.
Where was the Oregon Republican party during all this? When they weren't cozening up to the democrats and proposing their own big tax and spend initiative, they engaged themselves in nothing more than advanced navel gazing and thumb-buggery. So, when it came time to cast their ballots for a new governor in 2002, a lot of Oregon working taxpayers cast their vote for the Libertarians. and the Republicans have no one to blame for it but themselves.
Ross Perot wasn't a spoiler in '92. Bush Sr. managed to lose reelection all by himself by signing in a tax increase when he promised not to. And in Oregon, in 2002, Cox wasn't a spoiler either. Ten years after Bush Sr.'s defeat, the Republicans still hadn't learned, but decided again to pretend to be tax and spend democrats. They had to repeat the lesson, and Mannix didn't get anywhere near the governorship.
I wonder if they've learned the lesson yet?
It's a start...;o)
Welcome to Oregon ~ I moved here in '90, I'm a retired truck driver from the SF Bay Area.
I checked your profile page and we think alike.
Think about joining http://www.oregonfirearms.org it's a very active pro-gun site and fights the kooks in the state legislature like Ginny Burdick, etc.
Be Ever Vigilant!
Thanks ... Slice of Heaven ya!
Done did join right after I quit lurk'n. I do write letters and contact my representatives as they suggest.
Congratulations ~ Kevin at OFF is a great guy.
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