Meet Rich Nugent, the new Dede Scozzafava

Sorry for the Vanity. But I thought Freepers need to know about what's happening down here in Florida along the "nature coast" north of Tampa.

We have another case where the Washington elites think they know better than the people of the district who should be sent to Congress.

Last year, this happened in NY-23. There were back-room dealings that put Dede Scozzafava, a very progressive "Republican" on the ballot. And the Washington establishment poured tons of money into Scozzafava's campaign trying to convince us that any Republican was better than a Democrat. They wanted us as Republicans to support a Pro-choice, pro-union candidate who stood against almost all of the principles that conservatives hold dear.

In the end, their "Republican" candidate dropped out of the race and endorsed the slightly more conservative (than her) Democrat over the Conservative Party of New York's choice, Doug Hoffman.

Enough history. Let's move forward to 2010, and south to Florida's 5th Congressional District.

The incumbent, Ginny Brown-Waite, had announced that she was running for re-election. There was a challenge from a Constitutionalist, 9-12er and TEA Partier, Jason Sager. Sager qualified for the ballot by petition, with more signed petitions than any other Congresional challenger in Florida (possibly more petitions than any congressional challenger in the nation). (author's Note, I live in this district, and I strongly support Jason Sager in this race)

Backroom deal, Ginny's Hand Picked Replacement

With only 20 minutes remaining before the qualifying deadline, Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent paid the $10,440 qualifying fee and entered the race. About 5 minutes after the qualifying deadline, Ginny Brown-Waite and Sheriff Richard Nugent held a joint press conference where Ginny announced she was dropping out for health reasons. She endorsed Nugent as her "replacement."

This move angered many in the 5th district. Ginny and Nugent using secret, underhanded tactics, succeeded in preventing other candidates from entering the race to challenge for this seat. Most Republicans would not challenge a sitting incumbent, and did not enter the race out of respect for Ginny.

In last week's debate in Pasco County, the moderator, Tom Jackson of the Tampa Tribune asked Nugent to explain how his entry into the race wasn't "skulduggery." Nugent went over the timeline and explained again, even admitting that one of the purposes of their tactics was to eliminate any competition in the election. In the end, he threw Ginny under the bus, saying, "If you an issue, it's with the Congresswoman, it's not with me." (YouTube Video of his explanation.)

Big DC Funding

This is where Sheriff Nugent and Dede Scozzafava also share some common supporters. In only two months, Nugent has raised a lot of money. Much of his fundraising has come from PACs. Some is from business PACs, trying to buy access and influence. But over half of his PAC support is from leadership PACs run by current members of congress. These same PACs also donated heavily to Dede Scozzafava last year. Here's a summary:

These "Republican Leaders" are financing the campaign of Ginny's hand-picked replacement. They believe they know better than the people of our district who should represent us in the next Congress.

PAC/Campaign Committee	Congress Critter	to Nugent in 2010	to Scozzafava in 2009
Continuing a Majority Party Action Committee	Dave Camp, MI-4	$5,000	$5,000
Every Republican is Crucial PAC	Eric Cantor, VA-7	5,000	5,000
Friends of Ginny Brown-Waite	Ginny Brown-Waite, FL-5	4,000	1,000 (plus campaign appearance)
Growth and Prosperity PAC	Spencer Bachus, AL-6	1,000	5,000
Majority Committee PAC	Kevin McCarthy, CA-22	2,000	2,000
New Pioneers PAC	Greg Walden, OR-2	1,000	1,000
Shuster for Congress	Bill Shuster, PA-9	1,000
The Freedom Project	John Boehner, OH-8	5,000	5,000
Vote to Elect Republicans Now PAC	Vernon Buchanan, FL-13	2,500

I question why any PAC would get involved in a primary, but for a "leadership PAC" of a sitting member of Congress to be contributing to a candidate in the primary shows a complete lack of respect for the primary process and for the voters of this district.

AuH2ORepublican wrote:

What are Nugent’s stances on the issues? Scozzafava was famously pro-abortion, pro-gay-marriage and pro-Big Government; is Nugent similarly ultraliberal? Brown-Waite is pro-abortion (but not fanatically so) and a bit of a dim bulb, but not a full-bore RINO.

On the issues, Nugent has been married 36 years, has three sons. Two are in the military (one about to graduate from West Point). The third son is in the national guard. I know that doesn't sound like issue positions, but it's all he talks about at his appearances.

Beyond that, he takes contradictory positions on most issues, depending on who he is talking to.

He's against earmarks, but will continue funding local "pet projects" here in the district. Those projects are now funded by earmarks that GBW secured.

He will tell one group that he will sign the "Contract from America," and two days later, say he hasn't signed it and he outlines how it's too "radical" for him to sign.

He is against the Obama drilling ban, but doesn't want drilling to start again until we can "prove it's absolutely safe." I'm still not sure what to make of that. I think he's against the fact that Obama says that, but in favor of the actual position Obama is taking, so long as it's his idea, not Obama's.

He says he wants to secure the borders first, but then he wants a "guest worker" program based on greatly expanded work visa availability. He doesn't say if he wants to give all those new work visas to people who are already here illegally (which would be amnesty), or whether those visas are for people who are obeying the laws, waiting their turn in their own country (which ignores the illegals here now). He does say he is absolutely against sending anyone home. Deporting them would be too expensive. He fails to understand the cost of illegal immigrants staying here, burdening our welfare state systems.

To one audience, he says, "I Promise to go to war against the unconstitutional legislation that has been passed." Two days later, he tries to tell people that repealing unconstitutional laws is radical, and Sager will use his pledge to do so to immediately end Medicare and Social Security. Sager actually supports Title III and Title IV of the Ryan Roadmap Plan, and is very open about that. One of the reasons he supports that plan is to get us moving toward repealing big entitlements which fall outside the powers enumerated in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.

Nugent says he is a "fiscal conservative," and brags about "returning 2 million dollars to the county this year" from his $33 million budget. Even with that "savings," he has never proposed a lower budget for his department than the previous year. And over less than 10 years, his Sheriff's department's budget has risen from $19 million to $33 million while the population has only grown by around twenty five percent. When forced by the commissioners to make cuts, he cuts officers on the street and successful programs (DARE for example) rather than trimming the fat in the administrative areas.

Nugent will be a "Me too" Republican, going along with whatever the Republican leaders tell him. They are paying for his campaign, they will own his vote in the Congress. I found out yesterday that my list above missed a few. Some should have been obvious (Conaway for Congress). Others are leadership PACs with recent name changes which I didn't connect back (DIMEPAC is the new name for GINPAC which is Ginny Brown-Waite's leadership PAC). In total, his July FEC filing showed he had over $32,000 in campaign money from the incumbents in DC now.

Sager will be a principled constitutionalist along the lines of Mike Pence, Michelle Bachman and Ron Paul. Sager's position on the issues never changes because his principles don't change.

A heads up on Mike Pence...

In the beginning, Pence was going along with all the globalist legislation. He has supported many bills, now laws, that are repugnant to the Constitution during the Bush years. He has shown loyal support for the money cartels as well.

His embrace of the “Tea Party movement” may be a move that is motivated by the possibility that he knew his political hinny would be in trouble if he did NOT embrace them. IN other words, he may be pandering to keep his job.

But, I want to put emphasis on “MAY.” Why? Because I have not been able to discern if he has always been a constitutionist and the Tea Party gave him the courage (and backing) to come out of the closet. He may have played along with the Establishment during the Bush years to gather a footing in the power structure of Washington and the Tea Party movement gave him the way to project his constitutionist inclinations.

IN either case, until we know the truth, we should be cautious when labeling Pence as a constitutionist supporter. Being a major coordinator in his first bid for Congress, I believed in him once. I would like to believe in him once again.

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