Posted on 07/09/2009 10:06:16 PM PDT by Maelstorm
FL Gov. Charlie Crist (R) raised a formidable $4.3M for his SEN bid for the quarter ending 6/30, his campaign announced today. GOPer Marco Rubio, the former FL House speaker who is also running, raised just $340K during the same time period.
"I am humbled by the support that I am receiving from the people of Florida and around the country," Crist said. "I take their support seriously and continue to work every day to honor the trust and confidence they have placed in me."
Crist announced his SEN bid in mid-May, so he didn't start fundraising until halfway through the quarter. In a release, his camp bragged that if you do the math, he has raised an average of $86K/day since then.
Crist camp co-chair/ex-Sen. Connie Mack weighed in: "Clearly Governor Crist's record of cutting taxes, fighting for Florida's students and fighting for the safety, rights and freedoms of all Floridians is resonating with people across the state and around the nation."
The total could spell doom for Rubio, regarded as an up-and-comer but who has ruffled some feathers for trying to buck Crist, the establishment's pick. Crist has the backing of the NRSC, among other high-profile GOP sens, including John McCain (AZ), Mitch McConnell (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mel Martinez (FL) and Lamar Alexander (TN).
Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos said his candidate isn't intimidated by Crist's fundraising prowess.
"Charlie Crist will need to spend every last cent trying to convince voters that his support for wasteful stimulus spending, cap-and-trade schemes, tax increases and liberal judges are acceptable Republican practices," Burgos said in an email.
Here is Crist's prominent backers. Do you want more Senators like them?
"John McCain (AZ), Mitch McConnell (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mel Martinez (FL) and Lamar Alexander (TN)"
Do you want a Senator that will form alliances with President Obama or do you want one that will stand unwavering against him and his socialist agenda?
Club for Growth Polling for Rubio finds that he can win if he can boost his name recognition.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/36387-1.html
This is unfortunate, but predictable.
Time to stop the RINO Orange Menace in FL !
Up until about a year ago, there were a number of freepers here saying Senators Martinez and McConnell were solid conservative leaders (McConnell was extremely popular here when he was the head opposition guy during McCain-Feingold), so you'll have to take it up with them. Both Crist and Rubio have been endorsed by Republicans I don't particularly like, so that doesn't factor into my decision on who to support for Senator.
Funny, it didn't seem to bother you when your guy Sauerberg by backing by EVERY RINO in the GOP establishment during the Republican primary, over much more conservative Republicans. For some odd reason, you sure were gung-ho about electing the GOP establishment candidate back then. In terms of supporting "Obama's agenda", I'm pretty sure Sauerberg would have been even worse than Crist (has Crist hired a radical gay marriage activist who hates George Bush as his spokesman? has he endorsed a ban on assault weapons?)
I just find it really cute how you can go on FR claiming to be so opposed to RINOs and the GOP establishment when you were the head cheerleader for them a few monthes ago.
We are in a fight on all fronts.
There’s talk here in Pennsylvania tonight that a GOP Establishment backed State Senator met John Cornyn to discuss her candidacy for US Senate next year.
Jane Orie is in the race to stop Pat Toomey.
The economy is bad and the GOP label will produce winners next year.
But who will the label be on, the more conservative candidates like Rubio and Toomey or the more liberal ones like Crist or Orie.
We must fight to get conservatives to win primaries instead of RINO’s.
Ribio needs to let upstate crackers and blue dog crossovers that he is against illegal immigration and will actually do something about it. If not he will be viewed as Mel Martinez 2.
Dade County has had endless and recent medicare fraud by Cubans and hispanics. Many had fled to Latin America and back to Cuba after scanning hundreds of millions. Upstate Floridans may lump Marco in with Dade County. He needs to come out against amnesty and illegal immigration or Charlene Crist sadly wins.
BillyBoy I don’t understand what your problem is. Sauerberg had the backing of Tom Coburn and many conservatives. He had already won the primary at the time I noticed him. I don’t think you ever realized the Primary ended. I didn’t say that any of the men supporting Crist are Rhinos. They are not as conservative as I but very few are. They tend to vote reliably conservative on many issues that I care about and given a choice between on of them and a liberal democrat like Durbin I most certainly would vote for them. You seem to think someone being a Rhino means someone who disagrees with you to any degree.
Steve Saurberg was and is a good man. A doctor not a politician, he made some goofs but he is also a man who volunteered in pregnancy crises centers to help prevent abortion but that wasn’t enough for you. He also came out against the bailout, again not enough. He attacked Durbin on the military issue but again not enough for you. He wasn’t perfect but he certainly wasn’t an insider or a political nut like Andy Martin. I also did not support Zimmer in NJ and others who I felt were too liberal. One thing for certain Billyboy is that you are an illustration of the problem with conservatives because you may not be a Rhino but you seem very happy to just continue losing as long as you can go on an point your finger at Rhinos. Do you support Charlie Crist? Do you like the fact he shook Obama’s hand and took the stimulus money. Do you like the fact that Martinez, McConnell,McCain, and Graham are trying to force everyone out of the race but Crist? What do you think Billyboy or are you just a cowardly sniper, content to sit and attack. Do you like Marco Rubio? Do you like Jim Demint? Do you like Sarah Palin?
Tell me and please get your facts straight.
Yes Rubio needs to get his message out. He is going to have to do much better next quarter. I think we can do it. He is one candidate I really care about.
Sarah should have used this race to show her conservative beliefs. What does she do? She supports Texas Governor Rick Perry? I just don’t understand. He is not a conservative at least not like Rubio. However, it is still early and hopefully she will announce her support for Rubio.
Rick Perry isn’t a bad guy and he is much better than Bailey in my estimation and he will win.
“Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was on Hardball last night on MSNBC, talking mainly about Iran and President Obama’s latest posture there. But Chris Matthews asked her about the Texas governor’s race, too - specifically, whether she thinks she can beat Gov. Rick Perry, given her “centrist conservative views” and the fact that he’s a “character... who’s talked about secession from the union, who now enjoys... the endorsement of Sarah Palin, who, for whatever crazy reason, has gotten herself involved in Texas politics?”
He should beg on his hands and knees to have Palin work with him in August. She could haul in the cash in a few days.
_____________
BINGO. Maybe we should beg Sarah to do it. We donated to Rubio. I can’t stand Crist. He’s no Rino, he’s a Democrat at heart. He will be just like Snowe and Collins. Dirty low down rats.
LOL!!!
In the general election, yes. So did Lincoln Chafee. Neither are remotely conservative. Just because some conservatives hold a fundraiser for some GOP nominee because the party bosses ask them to does not in anyway prove that candidate is conservative.
>> He had already won the primary at the time I noticed him. I don’t think you ever realized the Primary ended. <<
So given how adamant you were touting Sauerberg's virtues every week since he "won the primary", I trust you will be just as active posting incessantly pro-Charlie Crist vanities every week, touting his great "pro-life and pro-gun credentials" to freepers, should he win the primary? Please.
>> I didn’t say that any of the men supporting Crist are Rhinos. They are not as conservative as I but very few are. They tend to vote reliably conservative on many issues that I care about and given a choice between on of them and a liberal democrat like Durbin I most certainly would vote for them. <<
Correct. McConnell and McCain endorsing Crist in the primary aren't my favorite characters, but that's nowhere near as damning as all the Illinois Republicans on the Dems payroll -- the SAME crowd giving us the likes of Topinka and Mark Kirk -- not only endorsing Sauerberg in the primary but PERSONALLY intervening in the race to make SURE he won the nomination by censoring the conservative candidate in the race and refusing to allow him a chance to voice his views to GOP voters. You would have us believe that Crist is scum because some moderates backed him, but when some liberal Republicans on the Dem payroll worked their butts off to make sure Sauerberg was nominated, we should all look the other way and get behind him in the general election. How pathetic. Don't you find it even a little bit odd that the Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party is a close personal friend of Durbin, and his family had donated THOUSANDS of dollars to him, and he had a vested interest in making SURE a Republican nobody ever heard of it (Sauerberg) was the sacrificial lamb against Durbin? Don't you find it odd that the "electable" Sauerberg the GOP establishment was so hell bent on nominating, did worse than any other Republican U.S. Senate in the last 40 years -- even Alan Keyes? You honestly expect freepers to believe you had no clue Sauerberg was an extremely weak candidate? You find nothing strange that Republicans in kahoots with the Dems took unprecedented steps to ensure he won the primary?
Seems to me every Republican with an IQ over 3 that was paying attention to the race could tell Sauerberg was set up in order to give Durbin an easy pass to re-election, except you -- and you were the one, who more than anyone on this forum, following the race on a regular basis. I ever have vouchers from former Sauerberg staffers who regret working for him, and realized halfway through the campaign that Sauerberg was not running to win.
>> You seem to think someone being a Rhino means someone who disagrees with you to any degree. <<
On the contrary, I have argued against the "purist" mindset many times on this forum. I totally agree with Ronald Reagan that a guy who agree with me 80% of the time is not my enemy. The RINOs you backed were very far away from agreeing with me anywhere near 80% of the time. The fact is your guy Sauerberg was certainly to the left on Charlie Crist, by the examples I cited. You would have us believe that Crist is a dirty RINO when agrees with the Dems 25% of the time, but when the issueless Sauerberg agrees with the Dems 50% of the time, it made him a great Reagan conservative. That's laughable.
>> Steve Saurberg was and is a good man. A doctor not a politician, he made some goofs but he is also a man who volunteered in pregnancy crises centers to help prevent abortion but that wasn’t enough for you. He also came out against the bailout, again not enough. He attacked Durbin on the military issue but again not enough for you. <<
Oh, give me a break. You've got to be kidding. If you held Crist to the low standards in which you use to promote Sauerberg as a great guy, Crist would be downright Reaganese. The only time Sauerberg clearly distinguished himself from Durbin was the bailout. On calling Durbin out for comparing our trops to NAZIs, Sauerberg completed caved and even apologized to Durbin, saying he had been a great job for Veteran's issues! Durbin said the exact same thing your hero Sauerberg said about abortion when Durbin first ran for the Senate! In his 1996 race, Durbin said he spent years promoting "alternatives to abortion" and that was a "devout Catholic" who is "personally opposed to abortion and would never recommend a woman get one". Isn't that enough for you? According to your rules, Durbin must be a solid "100% pro-life" candidate.
>> He wasn’t perfect but he certainly wasn’t an insider or a political nut like Andy Martin. <<
He wasn't an elected insider, but he certainly was the ultimate GOP insider in that he was an unknown person hand-picked from obscurity amd given every resource available to them to win the primary. If you can think of another example in political history of a Mr. Nobody having an entire state and national party on his side to win the primary, I'd love to hear it. And now he's not perfect? Too bad you claimed he was during the campaign. Nothing the least bit dishonest about you portraying Sauerberg as "100% pro-life" when he admitted publicly he was reluntant to overturn Roe v. Wade and would confirm avowedly pro-abortion judges? Nothing the least big dishonest about claiming a guy who supports an assault weapons ban is "100% pro-gun"?
>> Do you like the fact that Martinez, McConnell,McCain, and Graham are trying to force everyone out of the race but Crist? <<
The more you whine about Crist while ignoring the fact the ILGOP did the SAME THING to get your hero Sauerberg nominated (which you didn't notice until "after the primary"), the more pathetic your double standards sound. >> One thing for certain Billyboy is that you are an illustration of the problem with conservatives because you may not be a Rhino but you seem very happy to just continue losing as long as you can go on an point your finger at Rhinos. <<
Since Sauerberg is clearly to the left of Charlie Crist, who consider a RINO, I'll leave to other freepers to determine why were trying to claim Sauerberg was a great guy we should all donate to when he did everything he could to give the finger to the 45% of Illinois Republicans who didn't support him in the primary.
The reason I dislike Durbin so much is he portrays himself as a phony "moderate", that is a sock-puppet who does whatever the DNC tells him to, and arrogantly refuses to level with voters about his positions. Having meet Dr. Sauerberg on two occasions (a very down to earth man in person, by the way, and I'm not being sarcastic), I realized that he shared everything I disliked about Durbin. He was a medical doctor, not schooled in any political knowledge, and was simply a puppet for whatever his masters at the corrupt GOP told him his "values" were. He had no idealogy, his positions were so vague that he could make any audience believe they were on his side. As the hand-picked anointed one of the party, he was determined not to give any of the other Republicans in the primary the time of day, and -- in a shockingly vain manner I've never encountered in any other candidate -- referring to himself as "the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate" (as if he was the only one running), before Republican voters had nominated him. Yes Sauerberg as a person was a genuinely nice guy and probably a fine family doctor. But Sauerberg as a political candidate was exactly the kind of politician Durbin is.
Answer me this, Maelstorm -- given the FACT that Sauerberg was polling behind Dick Durbin by DOUBLE DIGITS the entire campaign (usually extremely lopsided numbers showing Sauerberg would get slaughtered), and everyone (besides you) knew it would next to impossible for a Republican to win that Senate seat with Obama on top of the ticket, why did you consciously mislead people on this forum to believe Sauerberg was "within striking distance" and talk them into throwing thousands of dollars away on a hopeless campaign when that money could h have gone to other candidates in extremely competitive races against Dems. The fact is your hero Sauerberg won a pathetic 3 counties of 102 (Keyes won 10 counties out of 102 in his 11th hour entry into the Senate race against the media's favorite Obama). I can think of no other reason why were hellbent on promoting that guy, knowing he had a zillion-to-one-chance, unless someone in the GOP establishment put you up to it because they want to divert attention away from conservatives and get the money flowing to the RINO wing of the party. If you have another excuse why you were so focused on that campaign, and if you could somehow explain why you insisted the race was competitive when everyone who followed the race for months knew Durbin was safe -- I'd love to hear your explanation.
>> Do you support Charlie Crist? Do you like the fact he shook Obama’s hand and took the stimulus money. What do you think Billyboy or are you just a cowardly sniper, content to sit and attack. Do you like Marco Rubio? Do you like Jim Demint? Do you like Sarah Palin? Tell me and please get your facts straight. <<
Alrighty. Here's your answer: I don't like Charlie Crist. I have ruled out supporting him in the primary. Rubio seems to be a rising star in the party, but I am not sold on him yet, and obviously the fact freepers like yourself promoting him make me less likely to support him, given your past track record of backing RINOs (yes, RINOs, not people who are "mostly conservative and disagree with me on one issue") and how you distorted other politicians to make them sound more conservative than they are. Jim DeMint is okay. He has a slightly more conservative record than Lindsey Graham, but is not the deity some people on this forum make him out to be. I certainly disagree with his outspoken support of Romney. I think Sarah Palin is a great conservative, and hope people will see her through the unfiltered eyes of the media one day. But again I'm not going to agree with every endorsement she makes. I like Huckabee and while he's not perfect, he's about 20X to the right of your guy Sauerberg. Huckabee's position on guns wasn't "I own a gun but I won't tell you what kind of gun bills I would support" and his position on abortion wasn't "I volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center once but I won't tell if I'm pro-life or pro-choice". And he would never hire a radical gay activist as his spokesman.
Now perhaps you can explain why you were so relentless in getting conservatives to donate to the weakest Senate candidate in the country, a favorite of the most liberal Republicans in Illinois, who had no clear positions on anything besides the bailout -- if you major agenda is "conservative victories". Conservatives could have set fire to a couple $100 bills and tossed them out the window, it would have resulted in as much "conservative victories" as donating to a hopeless rank amateur that the GOP establishment had recruited, who was to the left of Charlie Crist.
Its pick a number time ....Don’t forget while Crist has a bundle this announcement so early on is a campaign tactic.
There’s a quote in here where I had Rubio in mind
http://www.theusmat.com/
Rubio, regarded as an up-and-comer but who has ruffled some feathers for trying to buck Crist, the establishment's pick. Crist has the backing of the NRSC, among other high-profile GOP sens, including John McCain (AZ), Mitch McConnell (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mel Martinez (FL) and Lamar Alexander (TN).
It’ll take more than money for Crist to win. Rubio has a year to run a campaign and get his name recognition up. If the Club for Growth jumps in, all the better.
A Mason Dixon poll shows Crist leads Rubio only 33-31 amongst Republicans that have heard of both of them.
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