Posted on 08/04/2014 5:54:42 AM PDT by Maceman
The Senate minority leader, long reviled among many on the right for what they see as kowtowing to Democrats, is in a tough race for his seat—and in trouble with the Tea Party.
If Alison Lundergan Grimes pulls off an upset victory over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in November, she may have Tea Partiers to thank. But don’t expect conservative voters to rally to Grimes—they simply aren't getting behind McConnell.
Although the five-term Republican ended up winning a a tough primary challenge from businessman Matt Bevin handily, the race was one of the most vicious and ugly this cycle, with Bevin’s campaign badly damaged in a cockfighting scandal. And while some disaffected conservatives have backed McConnell in November, Bevin has still not endorsed him, and many of the Tea Party groups that supported the businessman are following suit. As a result, in a recent poll, nearly 20% of self-identified Republicans didn't support McConnell
Scott Hofstra, spokesman for the United Kentucky Tea Party, said he isn’t backing McConnell and “taking the lesser of the two evils approach.” Many conservatives, Hofstra predicted, either will leave the box on the ballot for U.S. Senate empty or will vote for David Patterson, the libertarian candidate. The senator has alienated many Tea Partiers and has yet to reach out to bridge the gap, Hofstra said. The divide was opened further, he added, by McConnell’s open support for Thad Cochran in the Mississippi Senate runoff and McConnell’s association with pro-Cochran ads that many conservatives assailed as race-baiting. “If there were some people on the fence after what happened in Kentucky, the Mississippi incident really put them over the edge,” Hofstra said. Still, he noted that Tea Party dissatisfaction with McConnell wasn’t winning Grimes their votes. “I haven’t talked to anybody who would vote her.”
Andrew Schachtner, president of the Louisville Tea Party and a former Bevin campaign staffer, sounded somewhat more restrained than Hofstra in his comments to The Daily Beast. He said his group “was focusing on state and local issues” instead of the Senate race. In particular, he said, the Louisville Tea Party was prioritizing a local state house candidate to help Republicans gain control of the Kentucky House of Representatives. As for the McConnell-Grimes race, Schachtner said he had decided whom he would vote for but declined to disclose that candidate’s identity.
It’s not just Grimes who stands to benefit from Tea Party doubts about McConnell. Patterson, a policeman from the central Kentucky town of Harrodsburg, is seeking to get on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate. A recent poll put Patterson at 7 percent in the race and poised to be a spoiler. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Patterson said he felt confident that his team would get the necessary signatures and noted that he was already preparing in advance for any legal challenge.
Although McConnell has had a slight edge over Grimes in recent polls, most political observers consider the race a tossup, and it looks likely to be tight through Election Day.
But Patterson said that at the moment he is not directly appealing to disaffected Tea Partiers. While he said his campaign “will definitely appeal to those…who are absolutely fed up with the way McConnell has been voting in D.C.,” the Libertarian was aiming to attract those voters who feel “disenfranchised” by the two-party system. While he took pains to say he wasn’t “modeling his campaign after anybody,” he mentioned Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign as a possible inspiration: “more fiscally conservative than the Republicans and more socially accepting than the Democrats.”
Yet despite lingering anger over the primary and the potential appeal of Patterson, some Tea Partiers are rallying around McConnell. Frank Simon of the Tea Party of Kentucky said he is “very much for McConnell over Grimes…Politics is always the lesser of two evils. McConnell is always much better than Grimes. Grimes is pro-abortion.” But Simon said he couldn’t “speak for all the Tea Parties.” Instead, his group’s approach is to try “to make friends with people, because that’s the only way we’re going to survive,” he said. “We’re trying to overlook problems that we had before and trying to pull together to survive November.”
Simon said the bulk of his group’s efforts would involve a voter guide that was put out “not under this organization” but through a political action committee and another organization, which would go out to about 30,000 people. He told The Daily Beast that “unless something unforeseen happens, it will endorse McConnell over Grimes.” The bulk of the voter guides will go out through churches, which is allowed, he said, because it “also gives the pro-abortion endorsements, pro-homosexual endorsements, pro-labor endorsements.”
The question is whether the GOPe opposes the Tea Party for political reasons, or ideological.
IMHO most of the opposition is political; the Tea Party represents a threat to the GOPe’s power. That means that there’s a good opening for negotiation and compromise, if both sides were to take it.
Again, not forgiving McConnell for his actions, and I believe that any attempt to reconcile needs to start with him. But likewise the Tea Party needs to be receptive to any attempts.
Cochrane in MS is a completely different story. He needs to be gone. G-O-N-E.
There is no way to reconcile with McConnell, he is still burning bridges. Watch for TEA-backed candidates to be defunded and undermined in the general election.
So you’ll be voting for the Democrat, Alison Grimes. Just want to make sure we have that clear.
You haven't been keeping up with this story. The Ad (and others) came from Haley Barbor's group, and was paid for by money from the Mitch McConnell PAC.
The stories describing all this are all over Free Republic.
An Enemy is better than a traitor.
Are you aware that McConnell funneled money into Haley Barbour's group to pay for those racist attack ads? How is it that Cochran need to go but not McConnell?
The GOPe has declared war on the tea party. Surely, they can’t fault us for fighting back.
I can confirm that the attack ads in Mississippi run by “All Citizens for Mississippi” were funded by Senate Republicans, including Senators Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Rob Portman, Bob Corker, and Roy Blunt. It appears our Senate Republican leaders are willing to risk losing a Senate majority so long as they can get their own re-elected. Yes folks, it is true. I can confirm what we all suspected.
It’s about picking a single target that can be focused on in a very narrow manner in order to send a message.
Going after multiple concurrent targets is much harder, as the focus of the effort will be distributed and dispersed. The increased risk of failure generally isn’t worth it, especially since it introduces the possibility of a 1 to 1 result, even allowing the win to be dismissed given the loss.
Better to win big in a single contest scenario than to split or lose in a dual one.
Again, speaking purely from the standpoint of pragmatic political action.
We can only hope. We can also hope that all who support him get kicked to curb as well.
I’d would also love to see KY conservatives kick McConnell to the curb.
We can live without Mitch.
Do you really believe the GOPE is going to save the country? Purist? Really I voted for the last 6 goat turd gope presidential candidates your kind foisted upon us as the “only candidate who can win...” How’s that working out for us? When you do not offer a choice eventually people say why the hell am I wasting my time they are both the same.
Right now do you honestly think there is a choice between the democrats and the GOPE? If you do you are either a consultant on the take of some one on the government tit.
Sadly the GOPE has cost us 8 yrs of obama with their “only candidate who can win...” BS. So take your it’s your fault because you demand a real choice purist crap back to the drawing board. These 8 yrs are solidly on the GOPE and it’s leadership.
Ambassador Londo Mollari, 2263
LOL!
There are those of us in Mississippi, and those of us in Kentucky. Those of us in Mississippi can punish Cochran, and those of us in Kentucky can punish McConnell.
As far as i'm concerned, they both need to go. They stepped over the line of tolerable behavior.
They'll only get more shrill as time goes on.
Post 44 sums up my thinking on it.
He calls us racists, and the apologists expect us to support him.
Not. Gonna. Happen.
You are on Saturday Night Live, right?
Guilt trip, cry, beg, moan, plead, ridicule, mock, make up yet another cockamamie excuse for the GOPE and your beloved god the Party to try and get us to keep voting for the liberals you keep trotting out. It wont’ work anymore.
Here is a novel concept, offer a choice for a change.
As the GOPE Party Boy troll on FR I have a question for you. Why do you want conservative votes? Why would you want them at this point? Cannot the democrats rightfully in their eyes accuse the GOPE trash of courting racist, kkk members after your stunt in Mississippi?
What can you reply when they make this accusation? We really didn’t mean it? Oh we are just political hacks trying to save our liberal asses just like you?
Party Boy when you offer me a choice then you might get my vote back until then you made your bed full of rattlesnakes, jump in!
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