Posted on 02/28/2008 12:37:54 PM PST by jmc813
While Ron Paul's presidential campaign is sputtering to an unimpressive close, his congressional campaign is beginning to look more and more like a slam dunk.
A recent Public Policy Polling poll shows Ron Paul clobbering Chris Peden in the race for the Texas 14th District at 63 to 30. That may be surprising to some, but it really shouldn't be. Paul has faced a Republican challenger just about every election cycle. A challenger that has received at least implicit support from the national Republican Party. And Paul continues to clean up.
Peden is making a big deal out of the two local papers who have given him the endorsement, and is trying to paint Paul as an anti-family and anti-war radical. Since Paul voted no to a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as an institution for one man and one woman, and failed to support a ban on gay marriage, Peden has seen this as an opportunity to claim that Paul--who has been married to the same woman for 51 years, has 18 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild--opposes traditional family values. And as everybody knows, Paul does not support war in Iraq, which Peden sees as an unwillingness on Paul's part to defend the nation against terrorists.
The voters in the district, however, are having none of it. Amongst voters who consider morality and family their central issues, Paul's lead is 65 to 28. Young people, meanwhile, are the largest voting bloc for Paul. Amongst them, Paul leads Peden at a staggering rate of 75 to 11.
In terms of fundraising, Peden has managed to raise in the vicinity of U.S. $150,000. That's impressive. Or, it would be, if it wasn't for something like 5/6ths of that money coming from Chris Peden himself. But 150 grand for a Congressional run is no pittance, regardless of the source. How does Paul compare? He's raised a meager 1.053 million.
While Peden's fundraising is styled after Mitt Romney, his visuals and logo are inspired by McCain.
Here's Peden's logo:
And here's McCain's:
Oops, wrong McCain. Here's McCain's:
Does Peden have a hope? I don't think so. Not when District 14 constituents say things like, "I have an immense amount of respect for Ron Paul. Politics has a way of forcing people to go against their core principles for political gain. That has never been the case with Ron Paul."
Quotes like that are easily had in the disctrict, although this has an interesting source--it was Chris Peden himself who said that about Paul on January 17, 2007. The same guy who, just one year later, thinks Paul needs to be booted out of his seat.
But he won't be. So even though Paul might not become the next President of the United States, he will still be making gold standard, anti-war in Iraq, and pro-gun rights speeches in Congress for a long while still.
Great job, thanks for the post.
Post #7 ROFL! You should see the debate when Paul completely PW3ND McCain on the economy. The wrong Republican is being nominated, IMO.
Unfortunately, there are others who want to oppose Paul purely out of blind hatred or made-up reasons that he's "pro-terrorist."
I don't see how Peden can be effective in a House that'll see a substantial increase of Democrat Congressmen if he wins, and the Democrats will surely run someone against him in 2010. If Paul loses, then you might as well stick a fork in limited government and whatever Constitutional rights we have remaining.
I think he grew up there. I don’t know where he was born.
Victoria is one of those towns where you don’t know why it exists. No offense to Victoria, but what the hell are you here for?
Cool!
Got a link? i could use the laugh, and that sounds as if it would be pretty funny.
BTW, did you notice that in those election results that i sent to you, that out of a population of about 652,000 people in Paul's district, only about 158,000 people bothered to vote in the general election?
i hope you find this as distressing as do i. Certainly the third party candidates and write-ins couldn't have gotten ennough votes to skew those numbers.
Even though i don't vote in primaries (i'm a Libertarian, and even when we have primaries, the candidates are picked at the convention, usually after the formal debates...that's how Michael Badnarik was selected in 2k4, even though in primaries, he finished third), but i NEVER fail to vote in the general election, even if i have to write in candidates.
Have you looked at the details of this “poll”? It’s a “pay to play” automated push poll. Most likely Republican voters would have hung up on it rather than “push 1 for Paul.” Also it is unclear who all they polled. For all we know they called all of Ron Paul’s personal friends in South Brazoria County.
I’ll wait for the real poll on Tuesday.
The only poll that ever counts is the one at the ballot box.
I've seen posts opposing him because 'he wears funny shoes".
No, they didn't. Someone was spreading rumors that this was the case, but I knew all along that was unlikely.
Incumbency is a powerful thing. From time to time, an incumbent can be picked off, but it's very tough.
Too bad then. It would have been nice to replace Paul with Peden.
No, not so much.
http://lonestartimes.com/2008/02/29/can-chris-peden-beat-ron-paul/
This “poll” is a pathetic joke.
I do wonder though, wouldn’t it be in the Paul supporter’s best interest for Paul to lose? After all, if he doesn’t have a Congressional seat to go to, and he is out of the Republican contention, that may trigger him to run third party for President- thus, keeping the REVOlution alive?
Tell me about it. I spent more time than I'd like to remember trying to primary this b!tch out, to no avail.
It’s funny how much many of the Peden supporters mirror the extreme end of the Ron Paul fanatics they hate. “The polls are all wrong! Everyone I know is voting for my guy! We’re going to win on election day! The world will end if he doesn’t!”
....”Unfortunately, there are others who want to oppose Paul purely out of blind hatred or made-up reasons that he’s “pro-terrorist.”
I’ve seen posts opposing him because ‘he wears funny shoes”.”....
Go figure. And I’ve seen posts opposing him because he is a surrender monkey/ cut&run/ “9-11-troofer”/ foreign policy idiot. I am glad you cleared that up for me. “I just hate his shoes. That’s it!”
And the vast majority of it consists of emotional knee-jerk reactions. Exactly what we claim the liberals do that results in a lot of bad decisions that come with unintended consequences down the road.
Your Wait is Over.
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