How Lamar Alexander Kept His Most Dangerous Opponents From Running

nationaljournal.com ^ | 8/7/14 | Andrea Drusch

[cotton1706]

Monty Lankford has been a champion of conservative politics in Tennessee for years. He served as the state finance director for Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign, and he knows how to raise money—more than $3.5 million for Republican candidates over the years. But when conservatives approached Lankford to run against Sen. Lamar Alexander, one of the more moderate Republicans in the upper chamber, Lankford eventually said he wasn't interested. And neither were most of fellow conservatives.

By many standards, Alexander is the type of incumbent Republican that tea party groups love to hate. He's been a political fixture for the better part of four decades, and he regularly works across the aisle. Most sinfully of all, Alexander voted for the Senate's bipartisan immigration bill in 2013. Alexander easily could have faced a primary race with some real money behind it, like we saw in Kansas earlier this week, but he hasn't. His main challengers are a guy who local Republicans big-footed out of running for the House of Representatives, state Rep. Joe Carr, and a late-entering doctor who is polling at less than 5 percent, George Flinn—another failed House candidate.

To hear Alexander's campaign tell it, his smooth-sailing primary position (even tea party activists concede he will almost certainly win) reflects the senator's intraparty appeal, combined with a diplomatic approach to winning over potential opponents. And to some extent, they're right. Alexander convinced the entire Tennessee delegation, except scandal-troubled Rep. Scott DesJarlais, to not only stay out of the race, but also join his campaign as co-chairs.

But Alexander's lack of a credible challenger also underscores one of the tea party's biggest shortcomings across the Senate map this cycle: They're having trouble convincing good candidates to run.

[cotton1706]

Lamar probably consulted John McCain and Orrin Hatch on how to stay in power, so, along with his buddy Bob Corker, he could continue to thwart conservatism and help liberalism.

[Travis McGee]

Lamar voted for the La Raza Amnesty.

[Mechanicos]

“The real tea party race is happening Thursday in Tennessee. Liberal Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander is in serious trouble. Mr. Alexander abandoned a bus tour across the state after his crowds were meager at best and at almost every event there were more supporters of tea party candidate Joe Carr than there were for Mr. Alexander. At one point, in Elizabethtown, Tennessee, Mr. Alexander fled out the back door of a building rather than face a college student with a question.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/6/phillips-tea-party-dead-part-428/

[Servant of the Cross]

How Lamar Alexander Kept His Most Dangerous Opponents From Running

The exact same strategy was employed by Lady Lindsey in S.C. ...

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a favorite of the grass roots, was high on their list of possible recruits for the Senate challenge. But when Graham was tipped off that Mulvaney wanted a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, he quietly lobbied House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to make sure he got it.

Graham cultivated friendships with Mulvaney and three other House Republican newcomers - Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy and Tim Scott - in a bid to keep them out of the Senate contest. Scott was removed as a potential rival after he was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley to fill the vacancy in the other Senate seat last year.

“He showed them the ropes and he introduced them to people,” Woodard said of Graham’s dealings with the House Republican newcomers. “He kind of took them under his wing and they appreciated that. So they’re not going to turn on him.”

[C. Edmund Wright]

you NAILED IT.

[TNMOUTH]

If Lankford had guts and truly believed in the movement, he would have run. But he was a coward and he sold his soul to Lamar. I won’t forget it and neither will others here in the state.