GOP Primaries – We won one, we lost one
This month’s Campaign Update is being issued very late in the month in order to report on the results of several primaries in which GING-PAC was involved. There were primaries every Tuesday in May, except for the 27th. A run-off was held in Texas on that date, but GING-PAC had no endorsed candidate involved.
A win in Nebraska: Our biggest election victory this month came in Nebraska with the victory of Ben Sasse in the GOP primary. GING-PAC endorsed Senate candidate Ben Sasse early in the election process before he became the Tea Party favorite. Our endorsement of course was based on his social conservative, pro-family, pro-life positions. Nebraska is a red state and his GOP primary victory means that he is the odds on favorite to win the November election to replace Senator Mike Johanns – another GING-PAC endorsed lawmaker who is retiring.
Sasse was facing Shane Osborn and banker Sid Dinsdale. Despite his two opponents spending millions of dollars, he won with 49% of the vote on May 13th. The “establishment” candidate finished third. Ben Sasse is a solid conservative choice, but he is no newcomer to the conservative movement, having served in the George W. Bush Administration.
A loss in Georgia: Dr. Paul Broun is a really good friend of mine. We have worked together so many times that I have his personal cell phone number — and congressmen don’t give those out to everyone. It was Paul Broun who introduced a resolution for a Ten Commandments Week. His statements defending the faith during debates on the floor of the House are legendary. He is one of the few who ever walked in front of an official House camera and delivered his full testimony message to the Lord.
It was a sad day for me to see Paul Broun lose the GOP primary in Georgia on May 21st. Paul’s number one problem in this race was money, because his base was for the most part social conservatives and not the big money business PAC’s. GING-PAC put thousands of dollars into the Broun campaign, but that was no match for the hundreds of thousands that came in from business PAC’s to the other candidates.
A total of seven candidates ran in the Georgia GOP primary for the open seat left by retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Among the candidates was millionaire businessman David Perdue — the cousin of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue — and Rep. Jack Kingston, a 22-year veteran of Congress. No one received more than 50% which means there will be a run off between David Perdue and Jack Kingston. I will now take a look at both men and see if we can endorse either one in the runoff election.
Victory for the Senate Leader: Despite opposition from some conservative groups, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell handily defeated Republican businessman Matt Bevin in Kentucky’s Republican primary on Tuesday. It probably did not help Bevin that he delivered a campaign speech at a rally to legalize cockfighting. (Cockfighting is illegal in Kentucky.)
On May 20th, McConnell won with 60.2 percent to Bevin’s 35.4 percent of the vote even though the Senate Conservative Fund spent big bucks to oust him. Had McConnell lost, it would have caused a shakeup in the Senate leaving the Republicans with no clear leader and a power struggle just a few months before an important election this fall. McConnell’s victory sets him up for a November showdown with Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Secretary of State in Kentucky whose father was once state Democratic Party chairman.
Move to defeat House leader as well: I agree with much of what the Tea Party stands for and many of the efforts of leaders within it to elect conservatives. The Tea Party however, is not one group; it is hundreds of major and minor groups across the nation and it is not possible to agree with all of them or for the groups to agree with each other.
Some Virginia Tea Party groups are leading the charge to oust House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from his 7th District seat. These groups have chosen David Brat, a college professor who appears to lean more toward Ayn Rand than social conservatism. Brat was once an appointee of former Democrat governor Tim Kaine. He has a rather lofty but vague pro-life statement listed last among issues at his Internet site. Many of his other positions seem to be libertarian in nature.
Should Brat defeat Cantor in the June primary it would be up to Tea Party activists to elect him in November without any establishment support. If elected in November- which is doubtful – he would be the junior member of the House with no committee appointments and a staff of seven in a basement office. In other words, he would be just about worthless to his district and the state of Virginia for several terms in office. The Tea Party wants to toss out of office one of the most influential and powerful conservatives in the nation while doing tremendous harm to their congressional district to prove a point. What point I don’t know.
Leader Cantor has a staff of seven in his congressional office and a staff of thirty under him in the Leader’s office. He holds down two full time jobs in Congress which I do not believe Tea Party leaders understand. They are treating the race as if he is just like one of the other 435 congressmen in the House. They point to the fact that he spoke to a moderate group of Republicans in Florida as “proof” he is a liberal. Eric Cantor’s role as Leader of the House GOP is to enlarge the party and stop the infighting long enough to pass legislation, not to make long winded speeches championing Ayn Rand. Part of Leader Cantor’s job is bringing the far right and far left of the party together at least long enough to win enough elections this November for the GOP to maintain a majority of House seats, and he is doing just that.
Is Eric Cantor a real conservative? This is the answer: the Washington Post is running negative stories about Eric Cantor almost every day and he is constantly under attack by the liberal media. He has a zero rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL. He also has a zero rating from the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Leader Cantor has consistently voted against special homosexual privileges and for pro-family legislation.
Leader Cantor is a solid conservative who understands that in the end Republicans in Congress can’t shut down the government without horrible results for the nation and for the GOP. He gets what spending cuts he can while standing for the social conservative agenda, but he is not going to lead the GOP into the suicide mission of government closure that many, but not all, Tea Party activists favor. GING-PAC continues to endorse Leader Eric Cantor.
In June GING-PAC is supporting social conservative candidates running for Congress in Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, New Jersey and other states. Please continue to support our efforts in June to elect social conservatives who stand with the family and not the socialist utopian commune that is championed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
William J. Murray, Chairman
Government Is Not God – PAC P.O. Box 77237, Washington, DC 20013
WWW.GINGPAC.ORG