Posted on 06/07/2012 2:14:36 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
That was fast. Top Michigan Republicans decided to support former state Sen. Nancy Cassis (R) as their consensus write-in candidate for the 11th district GOP ballot.
A cadre of top local GOP leaders met again this morning to discuss potential candidates and settled on Cassis out of a handful of write-in hopefuls who expressed interest.
The decision follows a hectic couple of days for the local GOP since Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) dropped his own write-in bid Saturday after failing to make the Aug. 7 primary ballot.
There’s one Republican on the primary ballot, reindeer rancher Kerry Bentivolio, but GOP leaders opted to try to support a write-in candidate instead.
This afternoon, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, one of the most influential Republicans in the district, declared Cassis the consensus candidate to reporters.
The group voted 11-0 to support Cassis, according to one of the other potential write-in candidates, former House aide Paul Welday.
(Excerpt) Read more at atr.rollcall.com ...
I hope that Loren Bennett ends his own write-in campaign in response. I don’t know much about Senator Cassis, so hopefully Michigan Freepers can fill us in.
Unless something is seriously wrong with Bentivolio, I don’t see why he shouldn’t be supported. He is an activist, but a non-politician, and we could certainly do with a few more of those in Congress. If he ends up a lousy member, then replace him in 2 years. Give him a chance.
Bentivolio is a Ron Paul supporter and the record of nearby Congressman Justin Amash gives Michigan Republicans serious qualms.
The question is whether he is a full-on Paulbot nutter.
Don’t it, though ?
The GOP leadership in Michigan has shown nothing but contempt for tea partiers. I’m sure they aren’t happy that their boy Saul Anuzis was tossed out of his national committee seat either.
I think that Republicans in MI-11 (and statewide) are worried far less about Bentivolio perhaps being a lousy Representative than about him perhaps being a lousy candidate who could blow the general election. Remember when Democrat Charlie Wilson (not the guy from the movie) failed to get on the ballot in OH-06 in 2006? There were one or two nobodies on the Dem ballot, but Democrats knew that Wilson was a much stronger general-election candidate than the other guys so they supported Wilson’s write-in bid in the primary and he won the nomination (and subsequently the general election).
Curiously, the OH-06 was a traditionally Democrat district that was trending Republican and had given President Bush 50% of the vote in the prior presidential election (in 2004), while the MI-11 is a traditionally Republican district that is trending Democrat and had given President Obama 50% of the vote in the prior presidential election (in 2008).
We need a Paulbot or two in Congress; but not as President.
I wouldn’t call OH-6 traditionally Democrat. Ted Strickland wouldn’t have won it in the first place in 1992 had it not been for that ugly internecine battle between Bob McEwen and Clarence Miller. Prior to that, it hadn’t elected a Democrat since 1958. It always seemed odd that it returned Strickland again in 1996 (I presume the late Frank Cremeans was a weak incumbent, although he still only lost 51-49%) and only because of an anti-GOP year (along with Strickland running for Governor) would “the other Charlie” Wilson manage to hold it. I presume Congressman Bill Johnson should manage to hold it against Wilson in a rematch, which would make him the first Republican to retain it since McEwen in 1988 (Johnson has also outraised Wilson by $1.2 million to $450k).
I don’t know how accurate this ballotpedia is but it provides a starting point.
http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Nancy_Cassis
The OH-06 as redrawn in 2002 ran along the Ohio River from Portsmouth to Poland (near Youngstown), taking in all or portions of over a dozen, mostly working-class Democrat, counties. In 2002, Republican redistricters, at Bob Taft’s request, took out most of the GOP counties that had made the OH-06 lean Republican prior to 2002 so as to make the district safe for Strickland (but potentially competitive when it opened up); they also drew, at Taft’s request, a safely Dem district for Sherrod Brown that combined heavily Dem portions of Lorain (which could have easily been placed in Marcie Kaptur safely Democrat CD) with parts of Akron (which could have been placed in the black-majority OH-11). Why would Taft screw the GOP over like this? Because Brown and Strickland had threatened to run for Governor and Lt. Gov. in 2002 if they didn’t get safe districts and Taft is a RINO pansy who was afraid of having to run a vigorous race.
Wilson won handily in 2006; it wasn’t just because of the weak GOP year. The 2002-2010 gave President Bush a scant 50% in 2004 (and less than that in 2000), and was pretty much a working-class Democrat district that was trending Republican à la the WV districts across the river (but not quite as Republican in presidential elections).
Bill Johnson, who won in 2010 almost exclusively due to the GOP tsunami, will beat Wilson in a rematch this November because (i) the district has continued to trend Republican and (ii) it was shored up quite a bit in redistricting last year.
I see that Cassus voted to ban the sale of flammable cigarettes and voted in favor of tagging kegs (with big fines for kegs without tags)
She sounds like the typical big government republican to me.
Big development in the race, Loren Bennett has ended his write-in candidacy and Andrew Raczkowski has endorsed her.
I don’t know most of these people. Fortunately I’m in Walberg’s district and so far no real serious challenger has appeared.
Before you all start jumping on those “establishment Republicans” who want to hold down that “citizen-legislator Tea Party conservative” Bentivolio by endorsing Nancy Cassis, here are three facts about Bentivolio that you should keep in mind:
1. He hasn’t raised any money and hasn’t shown the ability to run a congressional race in a competitive district.
2. He’s an ally of L. Ron Paul and Paulite-wannabe Justin Amash.
3. He’s pro-abortion.
Yes, the “grass-roots conservative” Bentivolio is pro-abortion. Check it out:
“Republican leaders, Pittman said, are worried about Bentivolio being able to win. Some in the party also have grumbled about Bentivolio’s support of abortion rights, he said.”
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/former_state_sen_nancy_cassis_1.html
If you want me to support some reindeer rancher who is over his head running a congressional race, at least make sure the guy is actually conservative and not a pro-abortion libertarian Paulistinian. BTW, Cassis has seven children and was a pro-life leader in the MI Senate.
My message to FReepers who live in Michigan’s redrawn 11th congressional district is as follows:
Her name is spelled N-A-N-C-Y C-A-S-S-I-S. Learn how to spell it, because you’re going to need to write in her name the day of the primary.
“I see that Cassus voted to ban the sale of flammable cigarettes and voted in favor of tagging kegs (with big fines for kegs without tags).”
Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Cassis is a conservative with a record to prove it who will definitely win in November, while Bentivolio is a pro-abortion libertarian with no record who could well lose in November, and conservatives are reflexively rejecting the proven conservative who will win?
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