and that is how the RNC and the NRCC saw this election cycle. If you are a GREAT Conservative but are not a millionaire they have paid you NO ATTENTION thereby ensuring that definite pickups will stay with Democrats because why would Conservatives vote for a Scott Brown again!

Let’s be realistic shall we.

1) We won’t even get close to just the three exceptions on abortion any time soon, but winning a wisconsin senate seat would help control the Senate where the SCOTUS nominees and other judges are filtered.

2) I don’t agree with him on II but I don’t have a problem with REAL ID and I certainly don’t have a problem with “securing the borders first” which would be a huge step forward.

3) Agree with you on 2nd amendment

Now the next question becomes “how conservative” do you have to be to be “conservative”?

He passes the test for me although I wouldn’t call him “far right.”

I’m going to post two comments to allow for the discussion to go two ways…

First of all, the 2010 is much bigger than usual. Discounting Wisconsin, 17 seats are in play. Republicans have to defend seven seats and are targeting ten. Many of those are in big, expensive states (CA, FL, IL, MO, OH, PA), and one is against the Senate Majority Leader, who has the money that comes with the position. Most other states are neither small nor cheap. We don’t have the resources to play in all of them.

Wisconsin essentially fell out of play when former Gov. Thompson announced that he would not run. He would’ve put Wisconsin in the toss-up column. Attention turned elsewhere when he opted against a bid.

Enter Ron Johnson. Unlike Dave Westlake, who had been running for a year, Johnson was immediately tied with Sen. Feingold. Westlake has cracked 40% in exactly one poll taken since last November. Johnson, on the other hand, has been below 40% in only one, and that one had a whopping 44% undecided.

Even more importantly, Westlake had $1,952 on hand as of June 30. I didn’t leave out zeros at the end. That’s not $1.9 million, that’s less than two thousand dollars. It’s tough to run a campaign for dog catcher with that kind of money. This isn’t a race for dog catcher, though. The winner of the primary will come up against a war chest of about $6 million post-primary.

You can whine about Johnson not being conservative enough all you want, and I’ll address that below, but simply put it is delusional to think that we have a chance with any other candidate right now. Knocking Johnson only helps Russ Feingold. If you want to do that, that’s your business, but don’t try to pretend that you’re actually doing anything else.

On the issues of guns and abortion, there would be no legislative difference between Johnson and Westlake. The pro-life movement is only likely to get its way through control of the Supreme Court, garnering five votes to send the issue back to the States. At that point, it would become a state issue, and Congress would not be legislating exceptions or restrictions. Wisconsin Right to Life understands that, and that’s why he has their endorsement.

On guns, permits are a state issue. The only say that he’d have on guns, as with abortion, is voting to confirm or reject judicial nominees.

On immigration, he believes that the first priority is securing the borders. Beyond that, he wants to punish businesses for hiring illegal immigrants. He also, as you say, supports REAL ID. Now we can have a discussion over the wisdom of the legislation, but I would like you to explain an alternative way for employers to verify the legal status of their employees.

As for the stimulus, he said he would’ve supported a much narrower bill that funded infrastructure projects and included tax cuts. That’s a far cry from funding rain forests in Iowa and programs to teach Chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly.

It appears that you’re looking for only candidates who agree with you 100% on everything. If you want such a candidate, run for office. At this point, you’d probably have more money behind your campaign than Dave Westlake. Failing that, though, focus your energy on supporting electable candidates, whether in Wisconsin or elsewhere. And let me tell you, if you think Ron Johnson isn’t conservative, you should hear about Russ Feingold.