Peter Schiff was the Tea Party candidate.
Posted on 05/06/2014 10:08:26 PM PDT by PaulCruz2016
North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis won the Republican Senate nomination in the Tar Heel State on Tuesday evening, comfortably surpassing the 40 percent threshold to win the nomination. His victory ratifies the aggressive strategy adopted by establishment-oriented outside groups, led by American Crossroads, to spend millions on behalf of favored candidates and attack their rivals when necessary.
North Carolina was the opening battleground in the fight between the Republican Party's two main factions, and it's a sign the establishment's no-holds-barred strategy is paying off. American Crossroads spent $1.6 million on behalf of Tillis, significantly more than the resources of Republican challengers Greg Brannon and Mark Harris. They aired three ads, which each touted Tillis's conservative record and rebutted Democratic attacks against him.
The goal was simple: Increase Tillis's low name identification, knowing his opponents wouldn't have the resources to fight back. In January, the group commissioned a survey from veteran GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen showing Tillis only tallying 16 percent in the crowded field, with 60 percent of Republican voters unsure of their choice. Just over one-quarter of North Carolina GOP voters were familiar with Tillis. But in the middle of their advertising blitz in late April, another poll commissioned by Crossroads and conducted by van Lohuizen found Tillis's name identification had shot up to 66 percent, with him tallying 38 percent of the primary vote. That same poll showed only about one-third of voters familiar with Brannon and Harris.
Their strategy was twofold: Spend early to avoid a financially costly runoff that could wound Tillis for the general election and begin to make the case against embattled Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. It worked, with Tillis winning well over 40 percent across the board, in most North Carolina counties.
"The stakes were pretty high for us to get him there," American Crossroads Political Director Carl Forti said. "We may have had to spend significantly more to get [Tillis] through a runoff, and that's money that's not going to other important races."
The Karl Rove-aligned super PAC took heat last year from conservatives for announcing the formation of the Conservative Victory Project, an effort designed to prevent less-electable candidates from winning primaries. But with considerably less fanfare, the group achieved the same results by employing a similar strategy to boost Tillis. Crossroads officials said that it's likely they will get involved in additional primaries, given the successful outcome in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent over $1 million in ads backing Tillis, also saw two other endorsed candidates prevail in contested primaries—Rep. David Joyce in Ohio and North Carolina congressional candidate David Rouzer. The pro-business lobby attacked Joyce and Rouzer's conservative primary challengers as sleazy "trial lawyers" in ads, before they could catch any momentum. House Speaker John Boehner also comfortably prevailed in his primary, winning 69 percent of the vote.
The establishment is also gaining momentum in the run-up to the next wave of congressional primaries in Nebraska (May 13); Georgia, Idaho, and Kentucky (May 20); and Iowa and Mississippi (June 3). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to easily prevail against tea-party challenger Matt Bevin, despite outside conservative groups' involvement in support of Bevin. In a sign of early exuberance, Republican National Committee spokesman Jahan Wilcox tweeted "next stop is that fraud Matt Bevin!" after the Associated Press called the race for Tillis.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho is now favored to fend off a challenge from Club for Growth-backed attorney Bryan Smith. Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst, the candidate favored by Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, is winning support from establishment allies (Mitt Romney) and tea-party favorites (Sarah Palin) alike. In Georgia, the weakest Republican candidates are fading in the primary, making it more likely Republicans will nominate a strong opponent against Democrat Michelle Nunn.
The establishment's biggest test will come in Mississippi, where Sen. Thad Cochran is relying on allies aligned with former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to fend off a serious challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who is supported by leading outside conservative groups.
“The problem is that the Tea Party isn’t really a party, it’s just an idea, and in fact it pretty much a million different ideas since there is no structure, no platform, etc. In fact, the Tea Party is essentially a million Tea Parties of One.”
Gee imagine that, freedom of thought.
The ‘Tea party’ is the only party which adheres to standards of responsible government. Their allegiance is to the Constitution rather than power and money sought by the presiding oligarchy.
Electoral civics quiz.
Concerning whether or not the current uni-party governance is sustainable:
Is the debt going away?
Is government spending and regulation declining?
Are taxes being reduced?
Is the economy improving?
Are Americans’ rights being restored?
As long as the problems remain so will the public’s opposition to them.
>> If the TP doesn’t up its game and recruit better candidates they will just become irrelevant and the Republicans will start sliding left again. <<
Your analysis is basically spot on.
The trouble as I see it, however, is this:
A concrete entity called “the TP” doesn’t really exist. What virtually everybody calls the “Tea Party” is actually a vague agglomeration that consists mainly of (a) sincere grassroots conservative voters; (b) DC-based fund raisers, some of whom are probably no more than scam artists; and (c) political amateurs at the local level, many of whom yearn prematurely for national attention before they’ve earned their spurs in retail politics.
Therefore IMHO, it’s probably something of a pipe dream to suppose that such an agglomeration — no matter how sincere and dedicated its grassroots supporters may be — can ever truly “up its game and recruit better candidates.”
I understand what you are saying, but to me it often appears that the spring elections are essentially a general election to the GOPe but a primary for our Tea Party candidates.
That's where you come in.
Get involved, go to tea party meetings and join any that you can travel to.
It's all about grassroots, get involved!
One tea party group in 2010 endorsed 10 candidates that Sarah Palin also endorsed and they all won.
That was essential in getting the dems out of top leadership in the house.
Only if it is their pet candidates---read those that go along with the dems policies.
They spend millions to destroy good Conservative Tea Party type GOP candidates.
It's up to us and the other millions in the TPM and other grassroots orgs to get out there and work on getting Conservatives elected.
The GOPe would rather lose to a dem then see a conservative republican get elected instead.
Who was a lock to beat Reid? NV is a pretty solid blue state at this point. Who was the lock? Was it the newscaster without political experience or Tarkanian’s son? Are either a lock?
Like most things in politics. Angle has been re-written. She beat Reid hard in their debate. He beat her in turnout. She made campaign mistakes along the way, but what candidate doesn’t? I probably would have voted for one of the other candidates in the primary at the time, but there’s no way to play monday morning QB and say she sucked and someone else guaranteed to win.
Did you post to the wrong person?
“The ‘Tea party’ is the only party which adheres to standards of responsible government. Their allegiance is to the Constitution rather than power and money sought by the presiding oligarchy.”
Well, then, could you please point me to THE Tea Party platform that embodies those ideals? Because when I googled “Tea Party Platform” it turned up dozens of sites claiming to be THE Tea Party.
As far as I can tell, THE Tea Party is basically just a “herd” of cats, and the results of this herd of cats is pretty much what you could expect from a herd of cats.
Really tired of taking it on the chin? Are you serious!
I give you Bush92, Dole96, Bush00-04 won by skin of his teeth, McStain08, and Romney12.
They are tired of losing? Since when? Do you and the GOPE have some other definition of what losing means?
And in 10 and 12 just as many gope senate candidates go their Rovian butts kicked as tea party candidates.
Marginalize the conservative base at you own risk, it cost you the presidency in 2012, it will in 14 and 16 as well. But alas the gope always knows best, right...
Flame away but I’m beginning to think handing the GOPe the Senate is a bad idea.
I’m already seeing Amnesty shoved back down our throats with the “bipartisan, working together to solve our problems and make America and the economy stronger by getting these undocumented workers out of the shadows...” CRAP.
I agree. Better to let a Dem majority wave thru Baraq’s Supreme Court nominees and seal our doom completely!
Yeah, because we KNOW how HARD the GOP FOUGHT to stop Sotomayer and Kagin.
And of course don’t forget that long entrenched battle over Eric Holder’s nomination.
“Well, then, could you please point me to THE Tea Party platform that embodies those ideals? Because when I googled “Tea Party Platform” it turned up dozens of sites claiming to be THE Tea Party.”
Perhaps you’re simply a troll?
A 5-second Bing search produced a rather faithful representation of the Taxed Enough Already (<<Big Clue there) platform:
http://www.teaparty-platform.com/Tea_Party_Movement_Platform.html
House Republicans don’t need that seat in 2015 and 2016.
I’d be much more supportive of Ellmers losing than Susan Collins losing.
Susan Collins is 5 times more important than any House member.
Peter Schiff was the Tea Party candidate.
I think FreedomWorks is a big part of the problem. I don’t trust them.
Not a troll. You simply chose to list A SINGLE one of the dozens of websites that have “tea party” in their name.
To prove my point, I’ve listed my google search:
“tea party website”
https://www.google.com/#q=%27tea+party+website%22
so that anyone who cares can check the veracity of my claim for themselves, that claim being that the Tea Party is more like a herd of cats than an actual political party that’s capable of doing much more than getting a random candidate or two elected in DEEP DEEP DEEP red states.
(BTW, I just LOVE your claim that i must be a troll merely because I disagree with you. Isn’t that the kind of argument a “Progressive” would make? You know, insults and name-calling? Perhaps the Tea Partiers have more in common with the Progressives than they realize. Of course, that’s assuming you’re representative of a Tea Partier.)
Who cares how many websites there are or how many ways “fiscal responsibility” and “reducing the debt” are described? Any one of these initiatives is far beyond the intent or capability of the current leadership. I’ll take any one of them over the oligarchy’s platform.
You have a bigger civic issue if you’re looking at a party platforms versus party values. Is the Constitution a ‘platform’? Maybe you should consider one of the Leftist parties. They’re rather big on platforms, 5-year plans, Forward, Progress quotas and equality. They have lots of rules, numbers, and statistics for you to obsess over.
The Captains of The Chambers of Commerce of America steering the Republican Titanic straight towards the Iceberg of Moderation.
Values, good intentions, and principals are useless unless they can effect positive change, and a herd of cats can’t do much more than mill about - pretty much like the many different Tea Parties.
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