Posted on 08/07/2010 4:24:47 AM PDT by randita
Labrador to join Young Guns
By: Kasie Hunt and Daniel Strauss
August 6, 2010 07:23 PM EDT
After months of taking aim at Washington Republicans, Idaho GOP congressional candidate Raul Labrador says hes finally agreed to join their arsenal of Young Guns.
Labrador came to Washington this week, he said, and top GOP leaders personally asked him to join the program, which helps raise funds and coach candidates in tough races. Kevin McCarthy himself asked me, and Lynn Westmoreland asked me, Labrador told POLITICO, referring to the National Republican Congressional Committees recruitment and redistricting vice-chairmen.
They asked me to reconsider my [earlier] decision to opt out, he said.
The NRCC confirmed that Labrador had been in talks with the committee. He has changed his mind and he decided, spokeswoman Joanna Burgos said.
The committee announced Friday that Labrador would be part of the programs entry-level tier, dubbed On the Radar. That development closed the loop on the latest in a series of awkward exchanges between Labrador and the House GOPs campaign arm.
Labrador wasnt the NRCCs first choice for the race against Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick, and scored an upset primary victory over national GOP favorite Vaughn Ward by nine percentage points.
In the aftermath of that win, relations between Labrador and the committee remained uneasy, and just two weeks ago the Labrador campaign still insisted they had no interest in help from the NRCCnor did they need it.
It was our decision to not join the Young Guns program, Labrador campaign spokeswoman China Gum told the Idaho Statesman.
But that was a switch from earlier in the campaign: Labrador first joined Young Guns back before Idahos May primary, but he didnt meet the fundraising goals he needed to reach the programs first tier. After he won the primary, the committee declined to add him to the list.
Then he was caught on tape criticizing Minority Leader John Boehner. The problem is that John Boehner and the establishment in Washington D.C. failed us a few years back. That's why we have Obama and a Democratic Congress right now, Labrador told a crowd of conservative activists. He eventually walked back the remark, telling POLITICO: I understand I cannot win without their [the NRCCs] help.
The new, friendlier arrangement reached between Labrador and the NRCC will help Republicans ramp up efforts in a heavily Republican district long considered a top target this November. But they face an increasingly difficult race against Minnick, who has carefully courted support from the business communityhe won an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has one of the most conservative voting records in the House Democratic Caucus.
Still, the Young Guns program should help him with much-needed fundraising: Minnicks sitting on more than $1.1 million in cash, a sum more than 16 times larger than Labradors $68,789.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story attributed to China Gum a paragraph that should not have been attributed to Gum. It has also been updated to reflect new information.
Rs need to listen to the base. Not the toetapping Dc consultanst.
Labrador is unfit for office - guy’s a total nut. Why do Republicans insist on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
I do not live in Idaho...(close)...
I've donated...
may I suggest that if anyone needs to be booted its Walt Minnick even though he voted safely in he house, he believe Rats are better for Idaho....
I am hoping that Raul is Mormon, and I am assuming so...
he's got a higher rating than minnick from the NRA.....
so I am hopeing those two factors play big and get him elected although Minnie Mouse is way ahead in money and support....why,I don't know...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.