Kirk Wins
Feb 2nd, 2010 by David Anderson
Moderate Republicans win the Illinois primary with Mark Kirk taking around 56% of the vote with 80% counted. Conservative opponent Hughes received 20%. Republican voters made a strategic decision to go with their best known candidate.
Dispels the mind-set of many on this site that given today’s political environment all you need to do is wave the conservative flag and you’re in. Kirk is a five term incumbent who is pro-choice and supported cap and trade. Hughes had no remarkable credentials other than claiming to be conservative and based his campaign on labeling Kirk a RINO. Kirk was one of the favorite whipping boys at Illinois Tea Parties and won handily.
Here is the key item, next year the GOP will hold these seats- Reid, Kennedy, Biden, Obama, Specter and maybe more.
It won’t matter a lot if the GOP nominee is left right or in between.
Mike Protack
In a state like Illinois, a hard-core conservative simply simply can’t win; you have to take what you can get.
Delaware is one of the most liberal states in the union (how long have the Dems held the governorship and the senate seats?) Again, you have to take what you can get (Castle).
This is the reality; pipe-dreams are just that- dreams.
Delaware is no where near as liberal as NJ let alone MA, VT, OR, or HI. MA and NJ have more conservative people elected recently than we do. Don’t buy into that.
I agree David. We cannot sell out our principles just for an R next to someone’s name. So far desite not owning the legislative and executive branches, the drumbeat on the conservative right has tempered the health care and cap-and-trade votes.
If a candidate does not agree with the GOP platform, that candidate should not get the nomination. We must trump up the conservatives. That is the only way to preserve the republic.
“Delaware is no where near as liberal…”
Biden…liberal
Carper…liberal
Castle…moderate/liberal
Minner…liberal
Markell…liberal
Not ‘liberal?’ Who are the above, conservatives? Liberals have dominated statewide elections for years.
Rick…I’ll agree with you on a lot of things here with your last post. Castle is a liberal (I’d put Carper to the right of him fiscally) but he wasn’t ALWAYS that way. Delaware fell in love with him in the 80’s when he was a great conservative governor. He lost his way down in D.C. and he needs to be held accountable for that. No more wrist slaps for him, he needs a big hit.
But I think there is a fundamental disconnect in this discussion. Delaware’s registered voters are about 47% of the actual voting population and that’s after the last election which was the most participated in election in Delaware since Reagan (I think…don’t hold me to that but I believe I saw that stat somewhere…in any case we can all agree that it’s one of the largest in history). The disconnect is that everyone says Delaware is soooo liberal and they point to our government as proof. They’d be write if our politicians represented the actual will of the citizens but it doesn’t.
What it represents is the apathy and the laziness of the citizens with regard to their responsibilities as voters and as civic members. When more than half the voting age citizens aren’t even voting…what else can you gather? Especially when you see, as I do, many people each week who are waking up to the spending, to the disrespect for the Constitution, etc. More and more people are becoming aware and active. I think the citizens of Delaware are still today very much what we were in 1776. 2/3rds of the citizens will roll up our sleeves and fight the fight, they love liberty and they are willing to fight for it but they must believe they can win and they see themselves for what they are, people from a small state. They don’t believe they make as much of a difference as they do. 1/3 of the country is not going to take a side. They won’t step out onto that limb. They’re fine letting big government make their decisions for them.
Problem has been that the 1/3 of the country willing to let the government do all the work has been the one that the very few progressives have been able to convince to get out there and pull the lever for the same names. Most of that 2/3rds of the fighters and liberty lovers got disconnected from the rest. They got apathetic and they got scared that they were alone. They’ve realized (and continue to realize) that they aren’t alone. 2010 will not be the same election as has been. I can tell you that things are going to change in Delaware.
I agree with lot of what you say, but the fact remains; Delaware is a liberal state because Delaware elects liberals. Why is not my concern. Worse yet, more are moving in, all the time.
Maybe people in Delaware are getting tired of the liberal crap (transformation) coming out of DC, disguised as “working for the people.” Maybe enough conservatives (Dems and Repubs) can combine with enough independents to send our own “Scott Brown” to DC. We should be working to support him/her and not give in to the easier path of accepting Coons vs. Castle.
I’m jus’ sayin’…
If it is so liberal than why do the Democrats have to act like conservatives? Do not confuse a Democrat registration for liberal. Many of the downstate democrats are more conservative than many up state republicans.