Tag: idaho elections 2014
GOP Keeps Tea Party At Bay In Primary Races

GOP Keeps Tea Party At Bay In Primary Races

By Michael A. Memoli and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Incumbent Republicans cruised to victory in key primary elections Tuesday, offering fresh evidence that the party’s establishment wing has successfully neutralized outside conservative groups that have vexed congressional leaders since the rise of the Tea Party.

In Kentucky, Senator Mitch McConnell, the party’s leader in the Senate, easily won renomination for a sixth term over challenger Matt Bevin, who had hoped to tap into Tea Party activists’ distrust of GOP leaders in Washington. McConnell was leading the Louisville businessman 60 percent to 36 percent late Tuesday with nearly all of the state’s precincts reporting.

McConnell now faces what will probably be a more significant challenge in the general election from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who glided to the Democratic nomination.

In Idaho, as in Kentucky, an effort by conservative groups to unseat an establishment ally of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) fizzled. Rep. Mike Simpson defeated his Tea-Party-funded challenger, Bryan Smith, with help from a late infusion of outside spending from groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Another key GOP primary was the open Senate seat in Georgia, where the crowded field ensured a July runoff. The most conservative candidates, however, failed to advance.

Tuesday’s balloting in six states marked the busiest primary election date yet this year, and the latest to produce disappointing results for Tea Party forces. Candidate Ben Sasse’s victory in last week’s Nebraska Senate primary stands as one of the few Tea Party successes this year, but came in an open-seat contest in which multiple candidates had claimed the conservative mantle.

Despite the early successes in primaries, Republican leaders were reluctant to openly celebrate their victory over the conservative groups they’ve criticized in the past. Boehner told reporters Tuesday that the Tea Party had “brought great energy to our political process.”

“There’s not that big a difference between what you all call the tea party and your average conservative Republican,” he said.

McConnell’s ability to outmaneuver his challenger was emblematic of GOP leaders’ success thus far in curtailing the influence of conservative groups. Considered one of his party’s most astute political strategists, he saw firsthand the Tea Party at its strongest in the 2010 campaign, when Rand Paul easily defeated McConnell’s handpicked GOP candidate to win Kentucky’s other Senate seat.

The race between McConnell and Grimes promises to be one of the most expensive of the midterm campaign. It will pit Grimes’ call to replace the man Democrats have called “Senator Gridlock” in Washington against the unpopularity of the Obama administration in the conservative, coal-rich state.

McConnell’s pitch relies heavily on his potential status as the next majority leader, while casting the 35-year-old Democrat as simply another vote to keep President Barack Obama’s party in control of the chamber.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats in November to reclaim majority status for the first time since 2007. If they do so and McConnell succeeds, he would be in line to replace Nevada Democrat Harry Reid as majority leader.

In Georgia, David Perdue, a millionaire former business executive, won the most votes to claim a spot in the July runoff against Jack Kingston, a Savannah-area congressman. Perdue benefited from his status a newcomer to politics, his deep pockets and his famous family — he is the cousin of a former governor.

Karen Handel, the former secretary of state, came in third; behind her were the most conservative candidates, Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, both members of Congress. The seat was open due to the retirement of Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Kingston’s early missteps — he suggested schoolchildren should work for their lunches — were smoothed by a pivotal endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The eventual Republican winner will face Michelle Nunn, who easily won the Democratic primary. The political novice who also has a famous family name — her father is the still-popular former Senator Sam Nunn — faces an uphill climb in November, but she hopes to take advantage of demographics that are shifting the red state toward purple. Georgia and Kentucky are widely seen Democrats’ only chances to pick up a Republican-held seat in the fall.

To the west in Oregon, Republicans were buoyed by the victory of Monica Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon, who was seen as the candidate with the most potential to challenge first-term Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley.

In Pennsylvania, wealthy businessman Tom Wolf secured the Democratic nomination to face off against Republican Tom Corbett, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable sitting governors.

Rep. Bill Shuster, a key committee chairman, was expected to prevail in his own primary fight, while on the Democratic side, a comeback attempt by former Rep. Marjorie Margolies fell well short in an open-seat race. Margolies, who lost her Philadelphia-area congressional seat in 1994 after casting a decisive vote to pass President Bill Clinton’s budget plan, is now the mother-in-law of the Clintons’ only child, Chelsea.

Photo: Hyosub/Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/MCT

Republican Establishment Faces Test In Tuesday’s Primaries

Republican Establishment Faces Test In Tuesday’s Primaries

By David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s most powerful Republican, will get his first big 2014 electoral test Tuesday as he faces a Tea Party challenger who’s trying to mobilize anti-incumbent sentiment.

Kentucky’s Republican primary is the main attraction Tuesday, when six states will provide the biggest day of tests yet for the Republican establishment and the grass-roots Tea Party movement, which has roiled the party.

Two other states will be closely watched for clues about who’s winning the struggle. In Georgia, three incumbent congressmen are vying with two Washington outsiders for the party’s Senate nomination. In Idaho, veteran Rep. Mike Simpson is battling Tea Party favorite Bryan Smith.

Underscoring all of it is a strong anti-insider mood. And no one on the ballot Tuesday symbolizes insider Washington like McConnell, who’s seeking his sixth term in the Senate.

McConnell is being challenged in the primary by Louisville businessman Matt Bevin. Even if Bevin loses — and he’s far behind in a recent poll — a strong showing by the challenger would signal that McConnell is in for big trouble in the general election against likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes.

People are thinking that, ” ‘If we hate Washington, if we hate Congress, if we hate what’s going on and you’re one of the most … powerful people in Congress, we must hate you more (than) anybody else,’ ” said political analyst Charlie Cook.

Establishment candidates have rebounded this year so far. They’ve been ready for the Tea Party challenges. In many cases, insurgents have proved to be poor candidates or unable to mobilize the same passion that boosted the Tea Party when it became a political force in 2010.

Turnout in state after state is expected to be very low, meaning the nontraditional grass-roots voters the tea party attracts are more likely to stay home, said Matt Towery, the chief executive officer of Atlanta-based InsiderAdvantage, a political media and polling firm.

“We don’t expect the same degree of impassioned voting this year,” he said. People are somewhat better off economically, and voters have soured on the political system.

Here’s the outlook for Tuesday.

Kentucky

In 2010, Tea Party hero Rand Paul upset McConnell’s Senate candidate, Trey Grayson.

McConnell took notice. “I don’t think any other Republican candidate has prepared for this kind of primary better than him,” said Scott Jennings, a Louisville, Kentucky-based Republican strategist who was a political adviser to President George W. Bush.

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, as well as other conservative groups, is behind Bevin. McConnell has been able to counter with a “strong conservative record,” said Brad Shattuck, a Lexington, Kentucky-based consultant. McConnell’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 90.16 (out of 100), a solid conservative showing.

Some Bevin miscues have also helped, notably the challenger’s appearance at a pro-cockfighting rally. Bevin said he thought it was a rally for states’ rights.

A recent NBC News-Marist poll found McConnell ahead among likely Republican voters, 57 to 25 percent. Still, Tea Party backers have surprised the experts before, and even if he wins, McConnell’s totals will be scrutinized for clues to voter sentiment.

Georgia

Three candidates are thought to be in the running for two top spots in Georgia’s Republican Senate primary. If no one gets a majority of votes, the top two finishers will compete in a runoff July 22.

Polls find that top tier includes former Secretary of State Karen Handel, businessman David Perdue and Rep. Jack Kingston — and not Reps. Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun. Broun was once seen as the darling of the Tea Party movement, but the Tea Party Express is behind Handel.

Turnout is key. Towery expects a disproportionate number of over-50 voters to show up, and they tend to be more analytical and less angry at the government than Tea Party loyalists are.

Handel is a wild card, since she’s used social media extensively to boost her candidacy, and Perdue has positioned himself as the outsider candidate. A Handel-Perdue runoff would be seen as evidence that voters wanted little to do with Washington incumbents.

Idaho

Simpson is another consummate Washington insider, the chairman of a powerful appropriations subcommittee and close to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The conservative Club for Growth Political Action Committee made Simpson an early target, endorsing Smith last July and branding Simpson’s record “atrocious.”

The club spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost Smith — and then last month it apparently stopped, according to The Idaho Statesman, a McClatchy newspaper.

“We’re in a constant state of assessing and reassessing our races, moving resources in and out — depends on the day or week,” said club spokesman Barney Keller.

Idaho Tea Party candidates are having a rough time, said Marty Peterson, a veteran Boise-based political activist who’s a member of The Idaho Statesman editorial board.

“They are saying, ‘We are the true Republicans,’ ” he said of the Tea Party, but people are well aware that Simpson has a strong conservative voting record. Simpson’s lifetime American Conservative Union record is 81.96, not in the league that tea party activists would like but well in the ballpark for a true conservative.

Other states

Oregon, Pennsylvania and Arkansas also will hold primaries Tuesday. Pennsylvania’s governor’s race is being closely watched, since Republican incumbent Tom Corbett is vulnerable. Democrat Tom Wolf has a comfortable lead over Rep. Allyson Schwartz in the battle for the party nomination to face him.

AFP Photo/Jewel Samad