2010-02-09
The NRSC Knows What's Best for Indiana
The title of this post is meant to be sarcastic. The entire population has witnessed how corrupt and idiotic the National Republican Senatorial Committee can be when they endorsed the liberal Governor and Obama stimulus supporter, Charlie Crist, over conservative Speaker of the Florida House, Marco Rubio with more than a year left before the Primary. Conservatives rallied behind the young and energetic Republican, however and what was once an enormous gap in support between Rubio and Crist has been closed and the race is tighter than ever.
Well, the corruption of the NRSC under Republican Senator Cornyn (Texas) truly knows no bounds. The Senate Race against Senator Evan Bayh in Indiana has been underway since the summer of 2009. Unlike Florida, we have a plethora of candidates with various backgrounds and ideologies... it's also been a shockingly positive Republican primary by modern standards. Well, out of nowhere came Dan Coats. Dan Coats is the former Senator of Indiana who resigned just as Evan Bayh was completing his time as Governor and made it clear he wanted to run for Senate. Coats knew he wouldn't have been able to beat Bayh... but in 2010, Bayh appears vulnerable and, what do you know, the guy is back from his time as a lobbyist out east.
Say what you will about Coats, I don't care. We have an endorsement process here at www.ktracy.com and we're going to follow it, which means we're going to support the best candidate. Coats isn't really the issue here. The issue here is the NRSC endorsing Coats when there are three other credible contenders in the race, including Marlin Stutzman, who has already spent a ton of money and time on his campaign.
The NRSC did this after vowing not to spend money or time in Indiana. While that annoyed me at first, I really wish Cornyn and his cronies kept their corrupt fingers out of my state. Since this happened, insiders in the state party and NRSC has supposedly asked Marlin Stutzman (and probably the others) to step aside and let Coats take the primary without a fight.
UPDATE: Stutzman is now saying he was never pressured by the IN GOP to get out of the race. This was contrary to what I had heard from a usually reliable source earlier. That actually comes as a huge relief to me. Not only am I allowed to continue my love fest for my state party, but it lets us focus more on the Evil Empire of the Republican Party, the NRSC.
These guys have put MONTHS of hard work in across the state, meeting with countless party activists and officials at all levels, exposing themselves and their families to state media scrutiny, and you want them to just step aside like it never happened?
Thankfully, Stutzman and the others are doing the right thing and staying in the race. But here's what I don't understand: If the NRSC and GOP insiders in Indiana want to play politics like this, why the hell do we have a primary in May that costs taxpayers a fortune? It would be a LOT cheaper for the State of Indiana if we just went back to the Convention system and nominated all of our candidates that way. This would save taxpayers a lot of money and allow the corrupt politicians like Senator Cornyn screw around in state politics all their greedy little hearts desire!
No, I'm not advocating that. I'm a strong supporter of the primary process. What I am advocating is that the NRSC gets the hell out of Indiana, Florida, and every other state where there is a primary battle underway. Who the hell does Cornyn and the NRSC think they are to decide what kind of representation conservatives need and deserve in their states?
The Republican Party used to be a party that believed the best decisions in the country were made by individuals, not by Washington elitists. Senator Cornyn has repeatedly betrayed that conservative value and when Republicans fail to take back the US Senate in what SHOULD be a sweeping election, he deserves to be held directly responsible for that failure.
Let Dan Coats earn our support like every other Republican in the race.
