Jesmer got NRSC’s John Cornyn to go all-in for Specter last year. A few weeks later, Specter repaid Jesmer’s confidence in him by switching parties and went on to support Obamacare. Yet, not even the Democrats could stomach Snarlin’ Arlen’s crass opportunism. Conservatives knew Specter was untrustworthy for years, but the DC GOP strategists like Jesmer kept telling us Arlen was the best we could ever hope for.

Well, the voters disagreed with Jesmer and instead voted overwhelmingly for conservative Pat Toomey who ran on commonsense solutions and an end to the bailouts, takeovers, wasteful spending and runaway debt. Toomey is the clear favorite against liberal Joe Sestak in the fall. Sestak’s support of Obama’s government takeover of health care, failed stimulus, higher taxes, and wasteful earmarks will not wear well with Pennsylvanians.

Jesmer got the NRSC to help push consistent conservative Jim Bunning out of the race. Then, Jesmer got NRSC and Washington insiders to fundraise for Trey Grayson against tea party favorite Rand Paul in Kentucky. The establishment-picked Grayson ran against balanced budgets, for earmarks, and for federal control of education. The GOP establishment pulled every trick they could to stop Paul, even lying to Dr. James Dobson. Well, Kentucky voters gave a big “hell, no!” to Grayson. Rand Paul’s huge win was a blow to Jesmer’s goal of electing moderate Republican who will fall in line to the marching orders of DC GOP strategists. Rand will instead follow the Constitution and the principles our nation was founded on, which probably are radical ideas to beltway insiders.

So far, Jesmer’s picks of Crist, Specter, Grayson, and Bennett have all tanked. How’s his other Washington-backed picks doing? Jane Norton couldn’t even make the GOP nominating convention, and is losing to tea party backed Buck in Colorado. Despite money and name ID, Carly Fiorina is floundering in California. Sue Lowden is now the butt of jokes nationwide and may soon be overtaken by tea party favorite Sharron Angle in the polls.

Republican grassroots have been told for years we had to settle for RINOs, but now we know better. Conservatives have stood up and fought back, and now we have a chance to put freedom fighters like Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, and Rand Paul in the Senate.

Now is the time to fight back even harder. If conservatives continue this momentum nationwide, we can add freedom fighters Ken Buck, Mike Lee, Sharron Angle, Chuck DeVore, Christine O’Donnell, and Ovide LaMontagne to that list. Some of these candidates are winning and others haven’t broken out yet. But all of them are strong conservatives that can win in November if we unite and help them win their primaries now.

Don’t settle for Jesmer’s stale establishment vision of the GOP in 2010. Elect freedom fighters.

Remember, Erick warned us back in 2008 that Jesmer could be a huge problem for winning in 2010.

And now we have proof. According to numerous folks in-the-know, Jesmer has been the key staffer who convinced the usually reliable conservative John Cornyn to go all in for Charlie Crist. And it’s not even clear Crist would have left his safe seat as governor without the prompting of the NRSC. So instead of saving the GOP money in a crucial election cycle, Jesmer has turned both the governors race and senate race in Florida into needless expenses and was helped turn a previously successful career for Charlie Crist into a national disgrace.

If this were Jesmer’s only transgression, Republican grassroots might be able to overlook it. But its just the latest in a long line of poorly thought out decisions by the Washington insider. It seems to stem from his belief that conservatives are an obstacle to GOP majorities, instead of the foundation of the party.

Here’s a look at Jesmer’s other great strategic decisions:

• He convinced Cornyn to come out early and endorse Specter in Pennsylvania after he supported the Obama stimulus, in a move to stop Pat Toomey from challenging him. It didn’t work. After the NRSC put its credibility on the line for him, Specter immediately turned his back on Cornyn and switched to the Democrats. Instead of admitting the mistake, Jesmer, still unable to see the coming conservative surge in 2010, then spent weeks trying to recruit another moderate like Tom Ridge to challenge Toomey, arguing Toomey’s conservatism could never win in Pennsylvania . It didn’t work, and the NRSC finally, and begrudgingly, endorsed Toomey who now is ahead in the polls .
• Instead of backing a conservative leader like Jim Bunning for re-elect, Jesmer helped push him out the door and worked with GOP establishment to recruit and fundraise for Trey Grayson . Kentucky voters didn’t appreciate the meddling from Washington elite and have backed conservative Rand Paul, who now leads by double digits .
• Jesmer helped to recruit moderate Jane Norton in Colorado who now had to drop out of the traditional CO primary election at the state GOP assembly out of fear she couldn’t even garner the 30% needed to get on the ballot against conservative Ken Buck. Now she’s going to have to spend hundreds of thousands to petition onto the ballot and challenge Buck who leads Bennet in the polls .
• Instead of backing conservative Chuck DeVore in California who had been running for months, Jesmer recruited moderate Carly Fiorina to run against him . She did so poorly in fundraising and polls, liberal Tom Campbell jumped into the race as well. So instead of having the party behind a solid conservative like DeVore who worked for Reagan and served for decades in the military , California Republicans now have an expensive primary on its hands. [UPDATE: I should have noted that DeVore is now doing better against Boxer than Fiorina in the latest polls.]

Surely, though, this is just a string of unlucky calls on the part of Jesmer, right? Maybe he’s really a conservative who just misread the tea leaves of 2010?

Wrong.

Before getting the job to lead the NRSC, Jesmer was best known for making fun of conservative Scott Garrett in New Jersey. He was caught on tape telling the daughter of Garrett’s Democrat opponent that the standout conservative leader was a “nut” . Apparently, in Jesmer’s world, Specter and Crist are true Republicans fit to lead the party, conservatives are just crazy folks he has to put up with. And according to Jesmer’s own friends, his disrespect for conservatives is “classic Jesmer .”

Conservative icon Morton Blackwell, head of the Leadership Institute, likes to say that in Washington, “personnel is policy .” He’s right. Cornyn may be a conservative in his heart, but his top staffer at the NRSC thinks conservatives are “nuts” that need to be defeated in primaries and ushered into a dark corner of the GOP big tent. Therefore, Jesmer’s disdain for conservative grassroots is effectively the policy at the NRSC as long as he leads it.

If Crist bolts to run as an independent (as his advisers are hinting at and his veto of the teacher’s bill signals ), it will be the second time this cycle that Jesmer’s preferred candidate humiliated the party and cost Republican grassroots donors unneeded expenses. I don’t think this has ever happened once, much less twice, at the NRSC before. At least Lincoln Chafee waited until after his electoral defeat to admit he was a liberal.

It’s time for the staff at the NRSC to reflect the conservative values of NRSC donors. Or at least someone who is paid six figures for strategic advice that has a track record of strategic victories.

If Crist dumps the GOP, the GOP should dump the strategist that gave us the Crist and Specter disasters.

Call, write or email the NRSC and demand Rob Jesmer be shown the door.

National Republican Senatorial Committee
Ronald Reagan Republican Center
425 2nd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Telephone: (202) 675-6000
E-mail: info@nrsc.org