Hunter tops Thompson - misses NFRA endorsement by 2%

Campaigns & Elections Magazine ^ | August 7, 2007 | Roy Tyler, National Communications Director

[familyop]

...great post, and the news should not be a surprise to us! Enough of us will know enough about Duncan Hunter and the other candidates soon enough. Duncan Hunter for President.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

POTUS is completely beyond Hunter's electoral capabilities. The Governorship of California may be tough nut for him to crack as well, but at least he'd have an opportunity for growth. He has absolutely no chance of becoming POTUS in 2008, he really doesn't even have a chance at carrying a single state, he's not even going to get a single state's primary.

He's running against national celebrities on the Democrat side (as nutty as they are, people actually knew who they were before they started running) and against sitting Senators, Governors, former Governors, a [celebrity] former Mayor of the nation's largest city (a city larger than most states), former Senators -- people who have or have had positions of far more political significance than a member of the House -- which is only one modest step up from being a state legislator. Go look up the last sitting House member to be elected President. You're going to go back a very long ways to John Quincy Adams (who was also a celebrity of the time -- being the nephew of a founding father and former President) in the early 19th century. There are sound political reasons why House members are not electable.

He wants to be POTUS someday he needs to move up the ladder.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Sorry, he’s not going to become President...so I’m not even the slightest bit concerned about looking back on what I’m saying now. He’s not even going to win a single primary. The last House member to become President was JQ Adams in the early 1800s, and he was already a celebrity in his times (being a nephew of a former President). And he’s the only one. And no, there has never been a only a former Mayor elected President either — and though that’s probably still a superior position to House member — we’re not going to see that happen either.

[Gondring]

Indeed. People thought we should nominate Ford over Reagan and, four years later, G.H.W. Bush over Reagan. Luckily the conservative choice was picked the second-time around and history has shown that the be the proper choice. :-)

Yes, and I fear that Sen. Thompson would be just another GWB as President.

[Sun]

You moderates are awfully nervous that a conservative will become POTUS, and Duncan Hunter WILL!

[pissant]

No, actually, its not.

[pissant]

Where ya been?

[pissant]

Interesting theory.

[pissant]

Another MENSA, I see.

[SeaHawkFan]

I don’t have a problem with Duncan Hunter. He’d be a fine President. I would probably prefer him as President over Thompson, but Thompson is more than conservative enough for me. I simply think that Thompson is a very good candidate that I could readily support; and would win the election.

I think Thompson has the personal “presence” and communication skills to destroy any Democrat in a debate.

[pissant]

ANd to think they could have chosen that sterling prizefighter the RNC was pimping, Bob Dole. Oh wait, he got KO’d by Clinton 14 seconds into the 1st round.

[pissant]

For someone who sees Hunter as no threat to your guy, you sure as hell spend alot of time making sure we ALL were he sits in the polls this early august.

[Saundra Duffy]

“The assemblies made no endorsement.”

Pitiful.

[Frwy]

Right on. Let’s hear it for Duncan Hunter. Loud, long and clear.

[pissant]

Weak in the past. Fuzzy now.

[John Leland 1789]

Okay, so Hunter it is! Why can’t the Republican Party now throw out the “electability” theorem and drop everything, and get behind Hunter? WHAT is so wrong with Hunter that all of us could not back him?

[pissant]

hallelujah

[KTM rider]

all we need is a fairly viable candidate that oozes moderation and has an aura of leadership.
Hillary and Obama Are very beatable
.... consensus on the street from every republican I have met, is that GW and the republican party is very dissapointing. it might take a lot to rekindle any hope in the party

[George W. Bush]

After seven rounds of voting by the endorsement committee of the organization, Hunter received 64.8 percent of the balloting, less than two percent of the two thirds vote needed. After seven ballots Fred Thompson was the only other candidate considered.

Small organizations like NFRA which were actually very powerful in CA and other states when Reagan ran in the Seventies have been eclipsed more recently by groups like Focus On The Family and Chamber of Commerce and Club For Growth. In order to make their voice heard, they decided to hold a 'runoff' series of ballots so that they produce a final endorsement.

On August 6^th, they held their initial ballot which is arguably a more accurate reflection of support within this group:

• Fred Thompson 33%
• Mitt Romney 15%
• Ron Paul 14%
• Duncan Hunter 11%
• Tom Tancredo 11%
• John Cox 6%
• Newt Gingrich 3%
• Mike Huckabee 3%
• Rudy Giuliani 2%
• Sam Brownback 2%

I think Ron Paul won the earlier California Republican Assembly straw poll. I think I posted on it here. It was some kind of event for their state party. And he has some support from the CA leadership (it is a CA organization that spread nationally).

---

"The greatest champion of conservative principles we have seen in Congress in the past quarter century." - David T. Pyne, Vice President, NFRA

[George W. Bush]

Duncan and Tom Tancredo are expected to suspend their campaigns after Ames. I read that Tom suspended his briefly last month. Then they'll wait to file for matching funds. Hunter will be able to help his son's campaign. Tom will be able to do more with his. Too bad, I like them both very much. TThompson will also suspend, Gilmore already has. Huckabee may continue but is expected to suspend. Ron Paul has money to continue so he alone from the second tier has been invited to the Reno debate on 8/20 (ABC/Brookings at UN-Reno).

Some folks will dislike this but media whores are media whores. They want to get paid. So they want RP's money even if they all think he can never win. Well, signs of capitalism are probably healthy in the libmedia. For instance, ABC has a pretty strong presence in IA/NH so their affiliates will want to gobble up that Ron Paul fiat money.