Tea Party Targeting John Cornyn's 2014 Reelection

keranews.org ^ | 10/1/13 | Shelley Kofler

[cotton1706]

Texas Senator John Cornyn is in trouble with the tea party.

At the Texas Tribune policy conference last weekend six tea party leaders were asked if want a strong candidate to challenge Cornyn in the Republican primary.

Five of them said yes.

Listen 0:003:09Story airing on KERA 90.1

Included in that group were former gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who now heads We Texans a limited government group; Northeast Tarrant County Tea Party President Julie McCarty; and Republican state representatives Matt Krause from Fort Worth and Jonathan Stickland from Bedford.

The fifth and most vocal critic was JoAnn Fleming. Her email list for Grassroots America reaches tens of thousands of tea party activists across the state. She’s also the liaison between state tea party groups and the legislature.

“I believe that Sen. Cornyn has never been more vulnerable,” said Fleming. “If a credible candidate comes forward who can raise money, Sen. Cornyn will have a race on his hands.”

Fleming says she’s fed up with Cornyn for several reasons.

She says he served on a committee that raises money for Republican candidates but would not raise money for tea party contenders.

And she claims Sen. Cornyn has repeatedly declined to attend tea party town halls.

“We don’t like that because it makes him appear to be very establishment and we think elected officials work for us instead of the other way around,” she said.

Fleming says the final straw was Cornyn’s decision to oppose the talkathon waged by Texas’ junior senator Ted Cruz who wants to pass budget legislation that defunds Obamacare, even if it shuts down the federal government. Her message to Cornyn:

“If he’s got a better idea we need to hear it.”

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey who knows what it’s like to navigate the halls of Congress was the sixth member on the panel. He defended Cornyn.

“Let’s first recognize our senator is with us most of the time and we ought to be somewhat appreciative of that before we trade horses in midstream,” Armey suggested, only to have Strickland heatedly jump in.

Strickland says Cornyn was “dishonest” in claiming he wanted to defund Obamacare.

“The deception of acting like you are against something then voting to help it along that’s where I have a serious problem.

A spokesperson for Cornyn responded to the criticism by saying the senior senator has repeatedly called for killing Obamacare he just disagreed with Cruz’s tactics for doing that. She said that just last month Cornyn met with tea party leaders from Denton, Frisco and Addison, and he’s led the Senate fight for adding a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But for some tea party activists there appears to be a disconnect.

Fleming says she’s talking with at least two elected officials who are interested in tea party backing for a primary campaign against Cornyn.

[showme_the_Glory]

I am from Texas and ready to work very hard to make that happen.

Me too

[Arrowhead1952]

I’d like to see Tom DeLay run against Cornyn in the primary. If he would get into the senate, he’d make some waves.

[manic4organic]

Way to hang in there, RINO. Get out of the way and let TEA party conservatives do the heavy lifting. Cornyn is gone, he just doesn’t know it yet.

[Ron H.]

“We don’t like that because it makes him appear to be very establishment and we think elected officials work for us instead of the other way around,”

Now that is a mouthful of a statement.

A spokesperson for Cornyn responded to the criticism by saying the senior senator has repeatedly called for killing Obamacare he just disagreed with Cruz’s tactics for doing that.

I was raised to believe that actions speak louder than mere words lady.

I for one will gladly support a Tea Party challenger to unseat Cornyn. He is a RINO moderate through and through. Also remember that under Bush II he waged a battle to get illegal aliens amnesty. There are too many issues through the years that he has been a senator that he has failed to support conservative issues. He is a blue blooded country club Republican and does a poor job representing his constituents.

[Ron H.]

I’d like to see Tom DeLay run against Cornyn in the primary. If he would get into the senate, he’d make some waves.

Tom would make a fine replacement for the traitorous Cornyn. There are a few others I can think of that would be even better but DeLay would have the best chance of defeating Cornyn IMHO.

[Arrowhead1952]

I know DeLay would really tick off some dims in the house. San Fran Nan comes to mind.

[wsavoy]

Hear John Cornyn hang up on Houston radio show

http://www.ktrh.com/pages/mattpatrick.html?article=11722145