Posted on 05/20/2014 12:16:53 PM PDT by Baynative
Matt Bevin seemed like the ideal candidate to challenge Mitch McConnell. The handsome and personable businessman, a father of nine, impressed national conservative groups looking for a chance to knock off the Senate Republican leader.
These groups, from the Senate Conservatives Fund to FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Patriots and the Madison Project, invested more than $1 million in the Kentucky GOP primary. Bevin himself spent more than $3 million, including $1 million of his own fortune.
And, yet, polls indicate he’s going to get creamed Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
He will not be making peace with me or Conservatives I hang with here in KY.
He declared war and then told us that he was going to "destroy us wherever they find us". He has been demonizing Conservatives, bashing Conservatives and working behind the scenes to trash us, betray us and silence us.
NO MORE.
Better the enemy you know and see before you than the one pretending to be your general that works for the enemy and sends minions to slit your throat while you think you sleep safe in the camp.
I will write in a Conservative or vote 3rd Party before I ever cast another vote for McConnell.
In many ways he is WORSE than Obama and just as big a traitor to his oath and country as the HomoMuslim Man-child in the White House is. JMO, shared by more than a few Kentuckians.
He doesn’t have a chance now.
Beforehand, he did. His chance was a low McConnell turnout.
But, he really lost this race at the beginning when McConnell had months of money to define Bevin.
It’s a good lesson, though. Challengers to established politicians need to begin with money spending big to define themselves and bash their opponents.
I don’t think the cock fighting rally was nearly as important as the initial ‘bailout bevin’ campaign that mitch ran.
Bevin should put all his new name recognition and money spent to work and run for a congressional seat.
No, I wouldn’t be surprised asking such a useless general question.
Once I took their general ideas and gave specific examples, as I did with Mitt, they might rethink their general answer.
Why don’t you go ask 12 random people if a good man wants to raise the minimum wage ignoring its damage.
I could ask another 12 if they thought Bill Clinton was a “good man” in a vague general definition.
“You’ll probably get your wish; McConnell will probably win the primary”
You had to resort to what is essentially ad hominem. You fail in your first response.
I would vote Bevin for sure if I were in KY.
I don’t like McConnell or his ChiCom-friendly wife.
One of the main strategies of the DNC this year is to convince voters that republicans and democrats are really the same, so it’s best to either stay home (as a way to teach the GOP a lesson) or just vote for the more folksy dem.
It appears to be working completely here on FR.
I don’t think Bevin ever recovered from the initial attacks on his campaign by the huge funding and media buys of the McConnell camp. It went unanswered because Bevin didn’t have the money to respond at that point. No matter what else happened, that initial ‘bailout bevin’ took him months to counter. He was defined before he even had a chance to respond.
Next time challenging such a candidate, the challenger should have:
1. Funding at the very outset and the following purchased and ready to go.
2. A mix of media buys and ads at the outset that introduce the candidate, his ideas, and the hope he wants to offer.
3. A quick response team in place with prepared counter-attacks, and ready answers for anything they have perceived to be a line of attack by the establishment.
In short, Bevin spent a lot of money. Anyone challenging an establishment figure must be rich or have access to wealth from the beginning.
“No thanks, Can’t stand Glenn Beck.”
I’d trade GB’s idiosyncrocies for BOR, Juan, Bob B, Karl Rove, Dana P, and many more....
“Speaking at a fundraiser to support cock fighting was a big mistake.”
It wasn’t a fundraiser to support cock fighting. It was a fundraiser for Bevin and the guy pushing the re-legalization of cock fighting happened to attend. But hey, keep sticking with the McConnel lies pushed by Fox News.
Sorry I am grumpy this morning after witnessing the final nail in this countries coffin last night.
“One of the main strategies of the DNC this year is to convince voters that republicans and democrats are really the same, so it’s best to either stay home (as a way to teach the GOP a lesson) or just vote for the more folksy dem.
It appears to be working completely here on FR.”
You are absolutely, 100% correct, hit the nail on the head.
As they say, “none are so blind that will not see” — meaning that some, unfortunately it’s actually many, that REFUSE to see the obvious. The Dems’ best “secret weapon” is the conservative voter. Sad, but true.
I have said it before, and will say it again. The GOP views the Tea party as a much greater threat than the Dems.
The DemE and GOPE went to the same schools, live in the same areas, and belong to the same groups. They have a very similar world view.
The TEA party (and to a point the Occupy movement) is outside of the elite. They come from very different places, and have a very different worldview. Both are viewed as a massive threat because it is bringing the view points of people who don’t live in the super zip codes to the table. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
And yes, I mentioned the Occupy movement. I have a friend who is very liberal, and his complaints about how the Dems are treating them are pretty much the same as how the GOP is treating the TEA party.
Democrats learned the lesson about the importance of early money a long time ago, and really proved it with applying the lesson to nominating and electing women candidates.
The term they use for it is EMILY: Early Money Is Like Yeast, and the organization that raises and funnels $$$ to women Dem candidates is called EMILY’s List.
But money wasn’t Bevins’ only problem: he’s stumbled badly in responding to three controversies that hit his campaign: his signature on those bailout documents, the claim on his website that he’d gone to MIT and the cockfighting thing.
The actual issues with those three things were secondary; the big problem was how he and his campaign handled all three in a completely amateurish manner.
He should have been prepped ton respond to the bailout stuff (first rule of running a political campaign is to oppo yourself and prep responses to possible lines of attack) and should never have shot himself in the foot with the other two.
Truth is that Bevins was a lousy candidate, not ready to run for a Senate seat and would have been eaten alive by Grimes and the Dems in the general election. McConnell may still lose, but he’ll at least make Grimes and the Dems work their butts off for the win, sucking a LOT of Dem money out of other races in the process.
“I doubt many conservatives support legalizing cockfighting. It gave ammunition for McConnell. It makes me wonder if Bevin was chosen by the establishment with the express purpose of exploding at the end.”
First of all, if you are a true conservative, you should be against a government ban on cockfighting. Why ? Because it is more govt.
Second, you really are a bag of nuts if you think Bevin put 1 million dollars of his own money only to deliberately blow it in the end.
Don’t forget dumb-ass, lazy, complacent, unengaged, can’t even look out for their own self interest voters.
Burn it all, down to the ground.
Just to put this in perspective, despite his first time campaigning stumbles, Bevin still pulled about 40% of the vote. Even though I’m of the opinion that the early defining of the opposition prize went to McConnell, the bailout attack was the worst. It lingered for months. I don’t think most folks really cared that Bevin gave a speech at a cock fighting rally. I didn’t. To me, it was no different than giving a speech at any gathering. There’s a group...let’s go speak to them. The MIT thing barely surfaced and then there was a response. (Meaning that the Bevin team was learning.)
So, my lessons learned remain the same. Early money, quick response, research on self and opponent.
I still think Bevin has spent a lot of good money and should now run for a congressional democrat seat. All that name recognition should be put to good use, and roughly 40% of the vote isn’t really that bad statewide.
My understanding is that Lazamataz is on his way to Kentucky as we speak to do just that ...
Laz, your sacrifice for your country is most appreciated--see post 167 for your target.
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