Great plan.
Posted on 11/07/2013 6:02:53 AM PST by cotton1706
Senate Republicans are spoiling for a fight this primary season as they try to take back control of the party from conservative activists.
The strategy: prop up the most electable candidates — even if they are more moderate than ones demanded by tea party activists — and punish those who get in their way.
After witnessing the business community help save the candidacy of Bradley Byrne, an establishment-backed candidate in a GOP runoff Tuesday for a House seat in Alabama, Republican senators are calling for the same type of support from well-funded GOP groups in Senate primaries next year.
“If you have an unlevel playing field, then you get predictable results,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who faces a primary challenge next year, said Wednesday. “The people who want to support a more traditional, Ronald Reagan-like Republican also need to get in the game.”
The fight between the establishment and the tea party has been brewing since 2010, but it has taken on new urgency in the aftermath of the Tuesday elections and as the midterm elections draw near. Many congressional Republicans were quick to argue that the 2013 elections bolster the case they’ve been making for the past three years: Candidates matter.
Gov. Chris Christie romped to reelection in New Jersey by positioning himself as a deal-cutting pragmatic Republican who did not adhere to strict conservative orthodoxy. But to his south, Ken Cuccinelli lost his bid for the Virginia governor’s mansion in part because Democrats seized on his hard-line conservative credentials. And even further south in Alabama, Byrne beat back Dean Young, a staunch conservative who likened himself to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Republicans said they must replicate the tactics by choosing the best candidates in 2014 — regardless of the demands of tea party-aligned groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Great examples of why they are afraid of their own base.
I for one will no longer vote in the general election for a "he's better than the other guy" rino. The shut down finalized it for me. If they won't get in the fight and fight for me I won't support them.
The reality is that it’s the Tea Party against the Dems/Dem-Lites. The GOP is a memory.
No need to limit it to the Tea Party. It’s main street against the marxists and crony “capitalists”. All those soccer moms that just voted for KC are not politically active Tea Party types. The Democratcare bill arrived in the mail and self preservation is kicking in for them.
They represent themselves rather than us. Why would I vote for someone who wants to alienate me?
Bull. He was neck and neck with a guy who had unlimited funding. Had the flaming RINOs in Washington not seen him as the political enemy rather than McAwful, he'd have taken that seat. It wasn't the TEA Party that blew that election. It was the RINOs who blew that election. Defund the RINO GOP. It's the TEA Party or nothing.
YES!
“We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.”
— President Ronald Reagan
The Patriotic Taxed Enough Already Americans (PTEAA) have to fight both GOP and democrats.
I want to agree...but with all of the dirty tricks pulled, Dems would FLOOD to the Republican ticket to make certain the weakest candidate would end up on the ballot...and we don’t need any help from the OTHER side doing that...we have enough issues just fighting the GopE.
Primaries are key..
"If he is an incimbent with 46% support, how is he the most electable?"
Hey, stop asking logical questions! (/sarc)
Primaries are key..
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That's Old-Think. :-) Look at it this way, if the GOP chooses the candidate, they are already the weakest one. No vote required.
Aside from Lee, Cruz, Gompert an a few others, the ENTIRE GOP Senate crew needs to flushed down the toilette at the next election.
John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Hatch, Mitch McConnell and Cornyn are DISGRACES. They have made LIFE LONG CAREERS of being elected officials and have ABUSED that right by enjoying SPECIAL privileges they have assigned to themselves as Senators.
They need to be sent into retirement.
Great plan.
Yes, Presidents McCain and Romney proved that strategy will win you Primaries all day long.
You’ll learn.
Do they actually believe that TEA Party folk will actually support and vote for their crony candidates in general elections following said steamrolling? I certainly won't, and most other TEA Party folks I know won't either. So there goes the base!
Damned fools.
Of interest PING!
Is there really a difference between the two??
When will Conservatives wake up and walk out on the Whigs? THEY DON’T WANT US. Fine, grant them their wish. No more McCains, no more Romneys, no more Doles and above all, no more Bushes or Christies.
“Donors are tired of contributing to groups that support candidates with their money that don’t win elections,”
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Well, I have new for these idiots: Two can play this game. If the Conservatives stay home on Election Day, or just do NOT vote for their Dem-Lite candidates, THEY WILL NOT WIN???
I am tired of voting for someone because there is an (R) behind their name; thinking they are the lesser of two evils. I wonder how pissed John McCain, Mitch McConnell and Karl Rove would be if there was a Third Party Ticket for President? I’m thinking: Cruz/Paul or Paul/Cruz or numerous other possibilities. Go ahead and run us out of the Party, we’ll start our own and the GOP will not have anyone occupying the White House again for another decade.
They are in the game and trying to lock Lindsey out.
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