The Establishment Strikes Back
Why did so many cliffhanger senatorial elections fall the wrong way in this week's conservative wave? One factor was the National Republican Senatorial Committee doubling-down on California's Carly Fiorina and--amazingly--Alaskan write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski, at the expense of tea party favorites unpopular with NSRC chairman John Cornyn and the rest of the Republican establishment.
Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post, reports that the NRSC surged $3 million into Carly's campaign during the week before the election:
. . .a spending surge that brought the committee's final investment in Carly Fiorina's campaign to almost $8 million, far more than any other Senate race in the country. Public polls had Boxer leading by 5 to 9 points, but the NRSC said its internal polls showed the California race to be a dead heat. By spending $8 million to help one of its star recruits, the committee took on added risk in places such as Colorado, Washington, Nevada, Alaska and other states in order to swing for the fences and go for the Senate majority.
Well, the results are in, and the NRSC's California bet was a bust. Turns out the public polls were right -- Fiorina got trounced by 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, Harry Reid pulled off a come-from-behind victory over Sharron Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck appears to be losing by the narrowest of margins in Colorado, and Washington State is still too close to call. In Alaska, the final results may not be known for some time, but the NRSC's final ads actually ended up helping Lisa Murkowski in her write-in campaign against GOP nominee Joe Miller. Instead of attacking Murkowski -- the candidate who most threatened the party's nominee -- the NRSC instead took aim at Democrat Scott McAdams, who had no chance of winning. Any support they drove from McAdams was far more likely to go to Murkowski than to Miller -- meaning the NRSC effort probably did more harm than good for Miller's campaign.
The NRSC's supporters respond that the committee spent plenty in those states, and it would not have had to do so had it not been saddled with so many Tea Party candidates. Put aside the fact that Tea Party-supported candidates such as Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio and Mike Lee won last night despite the NRSC trying to defeat them in their primaries, the idea that the Tea Party was a dead weight the NRSC had to carry on election day is absurd. The fact is none of the GOP candidates who won last night -- whether establishment or insurgents -- could have made it across the finish line without the popular wave of enthusiasm created by the Tea Party.
Meanwhile, according to an interview with Alaska's Republican nominee Joe Miller on the Mark Levin Show, Senator Cornyn has yet to offer aid or otherwise contact the Miller campaign, which is working to raise funds and rally volunteers to monitor a contentious manual review of each write-in ballot.
H/T Mark Levin
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May '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Doggone it George, Republicans in the House seem like they may actually be getting their act together and you have to remind us that the Senate is still a swamp of entitled, out-of-touch losers? It hasn't even been a week! :)
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
George -- I've actually been curious about this, too. Not only in the Senate -- it seems like virtually every single late-to-be-decided cliffhanger -- Senate, Governor, even the few I've paid attention to in the House -- has gone to the Dems. This (a) is statistically improbable, and (b) would seem to be inconsistent with the pattern of other "wave" or "storm" elections, where the close ones usually break for the challengers. I am as uninclined to conspiracy theories as one can get, but I do find this rather odd and am surprised that it hasn't been more remarked upon.
Oct '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
The NRSC is a disgrace and an embarrassment. During this election cycle they spent an inordinate amount of time fighting and demonizing fellow Republicans, wasting money on unwinnable races, and now not giving a damn about stopping vote fraud. Just what the hell is wrong with these GOP establishment types?
When 2014 comes around, I look forward to voting against Cornyn in the primary.
Edited on Nov 5, 2010 at 6:40pmOct '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Here in Texas, the Democrats are going to try and steal the election from Blake Farenthold (who narrowly defeated longtime Dem incumbent Solomon Ortiz) in the 27th congressional district:
U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz announced Friday he will request a manual recount in his congressional race against Blake Farenthold.
The congressman trailed Farenthold by 799 votes in Tuesday’s election.
He gained seven vote after Thursday’s discovery of an uncounted bag of ballots in Nueces County.
As many as 736 ballots remain uncounted, based on estimates provided by election officials in Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio and Willacy counties.
I'm guessing the vast majority, if not all of those "uncounted" ballots will go to the Democrat. Bastards.
May '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
OT but from a purely anecdotal perspective, I found the local GOP operation on the ground useless. Three weekends in a row working for Toomey & Meehan (PA-7) the GOP managed a total of 5 volunteers for door-to-door work while the local tea party provided over 50 people. Shoddy operation all around.
(how do you like my new avatar ;-) )
May '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Murkowski is the poster child for conservative credibility destruction. We must put our values before entitlement.
Jul '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
They didn't support youknowho either. People assume that Mr. Rove destroyed candidacies through his words. Actually, Karl, for some reason, has quite a bit of pull within the state organizations and that can hamper the GOTV efforts to say the least. He can be very bitter about his preferred candidates losing...
In other news, the NRCC is doing nothing about this.
Etheridge is demanding a recount.
The GOP establishment never fails to take direct aim at their metatarsals.
Jun '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Having worked all kinds of elections in Canada, and knowing what has to be done in the counting process, I find it untoward that a bag of ballots might somehow turn up. What the Hell is wrong with the audit chain in American elections? Somebody help me out here.
Jul '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Thank God for the Internet.
Not only does it give us videos of cats flushing toilets and a bounty of photos of Hollywood starlets popping out of their blouses, it also gives us a very convenient way of contributing funds directly to our candidates of choice, thereby side-stepping the GOP apparatchiks.
No, thanks, Chairman Steele. No, thanks, Senator Cronyn. I've already sent my money directly to real conservatives.
Say hello to Congressman Alan West. And Senator Toomey.
Edited on Nov 5, 2010 at 7:46pmRe: The Establishment Strikes Back
Cas, I don't know for sure, but my conspiratorial side tells me that we don't have airtight audit trails because, if we did, the local machine wouldn't be able to produce a bag of misplaced ballots when a desperate need arose.
Jul '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
It's quite amazing how missing bags of ballots only seem to turn up after tight races.
You never hear about them when the margin of victory was, say, 5 or 10 percent.
"Hey! Wait a second!. We just found a humungous bag of ballots for Alvin Greene!"
Edited on Nov 5, 2010 at 8:26pmMay '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Well, they're not worth the trouble and risk, are they, unless the election is close. Have them handy, just in case.
Jul '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
I remember, during Al Franken's "election" one of the 'officers' was crawling under a desk, to find yet another bag of ballots. Strange
The answer MAY lie in American history: unlike Canada, which has had fewer and smaller cities, the US has had big bumptious cities, with lots of wealth, making it really worthwhile to build and support (for generations) your city machines. Tammany Hall is the most famous. But that kind of organization has I think, replicated itself across the USA.
Now, early Canada had its shenanigans. But small agricultural centres are not wealthy enough to support the kind of machines we see in the American elections. This is why, by the way, the world LOVES watching your elections: hanging chads! lawyers! bags of ballots in a pond! Al Franken wins!!!
'
Jun '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
George Savage
Cas, I don't know for sure, but my conspiratorial side tells me that we don't have airtight audit trails because, if we did, the local machine wouldn't be able to produce a bag of misplaced ballots when a desperate need arose. · Nov 5 at 8:16pm
What Dr Savage said, Cas. When you put the poor audit process, harassment of poll-watchers, military ballot delays, together with specious arguments against photo id etc, you're not seeing evidence of a conspiracy, you're seeing a turtle on a fence post.
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Mike LaRoche: The NRSC is a disgrace and an embarrassment. During this election cycle they spent an inordinate amount of time fighting and demonizing fellow Republicans, wasting money on unwinnable races, and now not giving a damn about stopping vote fraud. Just what the hell is wrong with these GOP establishment types?
When 2014 comes around, I look forward to voting against Cornyn in the primary. · Nov 5 at 6:18pm
Edited on Nov 05 at 06:40 pm
Some of these folks should be marked for destruction in the primaries -- Cornyn among them. As Samuel Johnson observed, there is nothing like a public hanging to concentrate the mind.
May '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
A fundamental problem in recounts, no doubt, is that on-the-ground Republican grunts are more honest--more respectful of integrity regardless of ends--than their Dem counterparts. "Finding votes" is often the result of hundreds of small fudges by dozens of dishonest hacks at the precinct level. The Dems have more such despicable people.
We must fight it and expose it as best we can, but it's a fact of life that will always be with us. Ends justify means in the leftist mind.
Aug '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
He gained seven vote after Thursday’s discovery of an uncounted bag of ballots in Nueces County.
As many as 736 ballots remain uncounted, based on estimates provided by election officials in Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio and Willacy counties.
I'm guessing the vast majority, if not all of those "uncounted" ballots will go to the Democrat. Bastards. · Nov 5 at 6:28pm
Has anybody ever heard of the Ballot Box #13 ? If so, do you remember what part of Texas it came from ? Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces counties. Duval, Parr, all of them are the gold standard of voter fraud. Sometimes the results came in in alphabetical order . When good 'ol American voter fraud is combined with the desperation of the unions and the gilt enmity of George Soros, there is going to be BIG TROUBLE.
How do we clean it up ? There are obviously too many rewards at stake to defuse the greed. Perhaps to decentralize it and push everything down to smaller and smaller levels with less money involved. But that would be dismantling the Federal to a large extent over the people who inhabit it. BIG JOB
Aug '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
Mike LaRoche: Here in Texas, the Democrats are going to try and steal the election from Blake Farenthold (who narrowly defeated longtime Dem incumbent Solomon Ortiz) in the 27th congressional district:
U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz announced Friday he will request a manual recount in his congressional race against Blake Farenthold.
The congressman trailed Farenthold by 799 votes in Tuesday’s election.
He gained seven vote after Thursday’s discovery of an uncounted bag of ballots in Nueces County.
As many as 736 ballots remain uncounted, based on estimates provided by election officials in Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio and Willacy counties.
I'm guessing the vast majority, if not all of those "uncounted" ballots will go to the Democrat. Bastards. · Nov 5 at 6:28pm
Box 13, deep in the heart of , etc. Nothing new under the sun.
Jun '10
Re: The Establishment Strikes Back
flownover
He gained seven vote after Thursday’s discovery of an uncounted bag of ballots in Nueces County.
As many as 736 ballots remain uncounted, based on estimates provided by election officials in Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio and Willacy counties.
I'm guessing the vast majority, if not all of those "uncounted" ballots will go to the Democrat. Bastards. · Nov 5 at 6:28pm
Has anybody ever heard of the Ballot Box #13 ? If so, do you remember what part of Texas it came from ? Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces counties. Duval, Parr, all of them are the gold standard of voter fraud. Sometimes the results came in in alphabetical order .
... earning LBJ the sobriquet "Landslide Lyndon," eighty-seven votes that put him in the Senate.