Redstate

Posted at 3:06pm on May 24, 2008 Democrat Admits Democrats Lied About Stopping War

By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill is reporting that Rep. Paul Kanjorski (Dem., PA) told an audience at a town meeting that the Democrat Party was basically lying when they said they'd stop the war if they were elected as the majority during the 2006 midterms. One would think that such an explosive admission would be all over the news? Amazingly, this news is rather hushed.

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Posted at 3:16pm on Mar. 7, 2007 When Negative Ads Backfire

Lessons from the 2006 campaign

By Bluey

Last September 27, in the heat of campaign season, I got a call from a staffer at the National Republican Congressional Committee offering me a bundle of information about Mike Arcuri, the Democrat running in New York's 24th District. The aide, who shall remain unidentified, told me it was a bombshell I wouldn't be able to resist.

As I looked over the 44 pages that were sent to me, including a detailed summary, I was very apprehensive to do anything. I took the documents home and studied them over the weekend, finally reaching the conclusion that at the very least, I could write a story about a pattern of questionable expenses Arcuri billed to taxpayers. The gold nugget was obviously the fact that Arcuri's hotel bill included a call to a phone-sex line. Even though it was for only $1.25, I saw it as part of larger story about a politician whose expenses increased nearly 7,000% over a eight-year period. Before I wrote the story, I asked Arcuri's campaign to comment. His spokeswoman ignored my calls.

Read the rest of the story ...

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Posted at 11:25pm on Mar. 6, 2007 MI: Congratulations to the DeVos for Governor Campaign

By saul anuzis

The DeVos website won the following Pollie Awards

(see www.theaapc.org/content/pollieawards/2007/2007_Winners.pdf )

Website: Candidate: Governor - Silver (no Gold awarded)

Persuasion Online Advertisement: Candidate: Governor - Silver (no Gold
awarded) DeVos "Change" Pointroll ad

Best Use of Mobile Technology - Bronze (no Gold) DeVos Mobile Go Center

We're up for six total Golden Dot awards ( http://www.ipdi.org/blog/ )

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Posted at 10:01pm on Dec. 24, 2006 Did Muslim Vote In Virginia Swing Senate Control?

By California Yankee

The Detroit Free Press reports Muslims played a critical role in the November midterm elections.

Imam Mahdy Bray, Speaking at a Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America convention in Dearborn, highlighted the effective effort to turn out Muslim voters in Virginia:

The effort was so organized that Muslim taxi drivers in northern Virginia took the day off to ferry Muslims to the polls, said Imam Mahdy Bray, a speaker at the convention. Volunteers also made phone calls to Muslims in Virginia to urge them to vote, he said.

As a result, Democrat James Webb ousted incumbent Republican George Allen by about 9,000 votes in a race in which 50,000 Muslims went to the polls -- 47,000 of them voting for Webb, Bray said.

For my money Senator Allen gets all the credit for running a losing campaign. Nevertheless, if 96 percent of Muslims are going to vote Democratic, that would make them a more reliable Democratic constituency than African Americans. Democrats consistently receive only about 90 percent of African American votes.

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Posted at 4:53pm on Dec. 20, 2006 FL-13: Shocking - not.

By docj

Cross-posted at The Minority Report.

OK - anytime the Dem-bots who swooped into this blog to try to take me to task over my beating-up poor little Ms. Christine Jennings wish to start issuing mea culpas would be just fine with me:

Democratic congressional aspirant Christine Jennings planned to ask Congress on Wednesday for an investigation and possibly a revote in the election state officials say she lost to Republican Vern Buchanan.

Well gee, ain't that a shocker.

Read on . . .

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Posted at 8:02pm on Dec. 16, 2006 Immigration hardliners are hurting Republican electoral odds

TX-23 is latest example of hardliners turning off voters

By Adam C

Bob Novak notes what has been buzzing around political circles since the TX-23 runoff:

BORDER POLITICS

The loss Tuesday of the 30th Republican House seat, representing a U.S.-Mexican border district in Texas, marked another political failure of hard-line immigration policies.

Immigration was not the central issue when Democratic former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez upset seven-term Rep. Henry Bonilla, a rare Latino Republican in Congress. Bonilla, who supported a border fence while Rodriguez did not, lost border counties he previously had carried. He won Maverick County, 95 percent Hispanic, with 59 percent in 2004 but lost it with just 14 percent Tuesday.

A footnote: Six-term Rep. J.D. Hayworth lost in Arizona after stressing immigration. Randy Graf lost an Arizona border district where he made immigration his major issue. Six-term Rep. John Hostettler, chairman of a House immigration subcommittee, lost his Indiana district despite stressing his opponent's softness on the issue.

More worrisome in the long run to Republicans is that Texas may become a competitive state in national elections. Mr. Bush as Governor and President courted Texans who were first generation immigrants. He made tremendous strides in winning over their votes along with Congressmen Bonilla and others. If the massive drop-off in Republican support from recent immigrant groups lasts longer than the 2006 election, Texas is likely to become a competitive state. The effect in NM and AZ could also be devastating to Republican chances in the 2008 run for the White House.

Putting aside the policy debate for a moment, it may be time to consider the fact that a wing of the Republican Party is sounding exclusive and off-putting to the point of losing elections. Even those who support hardline policies should consider giving up Boortz-like rhetoric about "the Mexican invasion." Consider that one's audience includes millions of legal American immigrants who have the right to vote and rhetoric can be fatal in a sensitive debate.

[UPDATE]: It seems many commenters are missing the point of this post. I am not here calling for abandoning any enforcement mechanisms nor for leaving the border open. My point is that the rhetoric used is turning off voters and losing Republicans (including enforcement only Congressmen) elections. If people want to debate the merits of different proposals, please start a diary. I am not responding to them here. I do wish more people would at least look around and see that when rhetoric moves from "rule of law" to "invasion," it changes how people see the issue. People support the rule of law, but many voters see "invasion" talk as over-the-top, unserious, and divisive.

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Posted at 1:20am on Dec. 15, 2006 Opposition research...on bloggers?

Wonder if they know about my Cincinnati Reds obsession?

By Chad Dotson

There has been a bit of a kerfuffle (love that word) lately about reports that Virginia Senator-elect Jim Webb's campaign compiled huge opposition research files on a number of Virginia bloggers. Shaun Kenney has the story, and William Beutler has more here. The plan appears to have been to keep some ammunition on hand to smear bloggers who might dare print something damaging about Webb.

Read on...

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Posted at 10:16pm on Dec. 12, 2006 TX-23: Special Election Results Open Thread

Final Election of 2006

By Adam C

Republican Henry Bonilla (i) is in a run-off against Democrat Ciro Rodriguez. Rep. Bonilla's district was re-districted to be more Democratic this year so the race should be close but Rep. Bonilla won 49% in the first round with others splitting the rest.

Let's get this party started:

10:38 PM: I'm going to bed. Ciro wins this time. Will Bonilla try again next year? He should.

252/267 precincts
Bonilla (R) : 30,984 45.42%
Rodriguez(D): 37,226 54.58%

10:26 PM: By the way, results are here.

227/267 precincts
Bonilla (R) : 29,869 45.38%
Rodriguez(D): 35,951 54.62%

10:09 PM: AP calls it for Rodriguez. I'm not sure Republican leadership understands how bad the GOP brand has been hit in the last 2 years. If anything good can come from this loss, maybe they will realize it wasn't one bad night. It's been a bad two years.

198/267 precincts
Bonilla (R) : 27,285 44.2%
Rodriguez(D): 34,456 55.8%

9:56 PM 180/267 precincts
Bonilla (R) : 24,077 42.8%
Rodriguez(D): 32,243 57.2%

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Posted at 11:47am on Dec. 11, 2006 TX-23: One More Election

By Erick

While we might all have forgotten about elections, there is still one race to be decided for the United States House of Representatives. Due to a Supreme Court decision, TX-23 had to be redrawn. The election tomorrow is between Congressman Henry Bonilla and former Congressman turned Kossack darling, Ciro Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez, you'll remember, saw the lefties rally around him to oust moderate Henry Cuellar in the Democratic primary earlier this year.

A recent SurveyUSA poll shows that, even though the redrawn district leans Democrat, Henry Bonilla is favored to win. However, if the latino vote shows up in overwhelming numbers Bonilla could be in trouble.

According to the SurveyUSA poll, Bonilla is expected to win 53% to 46%. Bonilla has 70% of the white vote and Rodriguez has 72% of the Hispanic vote. Bonilla has thrown some heavy charges at Rodriguez, including the fact that Rodriguez sought to soften anti-terror laws while receiving campaign contributions from supporters of several Islamic radicals.

Stay tuned . . .

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Posted at 12:03am on Dec. 10, 2006 LA-02: Corrupt Representative Jefferson is re-elected in Democratic district

The Democratic Culture of Corruption Continues

By Adam C

Residents of Louisiana's second district (New Orleans) do not seem to believe they need a non-corrupt representative to represent them. Much of the post-Katrina problems stemmed for local governments messing up which in turn had a lot to do with accepted corruption in appointments and government in Louisiana. Re-electing a man who was caught taking a bribe with $90,000 of marked bills in his freezer is a great example of how much corruption is tolerated in old New Orleans. Results right now show Jefferson ahead 57-43 with 59% of the precincts reporting.

Fortunately, at the state level the generations of Democratic corruption are likely to end in 2007. Republicans have made major gains in the state and now control 5 of the 7 congressional districts. They still have a chance at the sixth one (LA-03) leaving only LA-02 as a solid Democratic district. A series of party switchers in the 1990s helped solidify the gains. Pro-life Gov. Blanco (D) edged out Rep. Jindal (R) for the Governorship in 2003 thanks to a few former David Duke voters who may have had a problem with Jindal's Indian heritage. However, in 2007 Rep. Jindal will try again for the Governor seat. And after the failure of Gov. Blanco in handling the Katrina disaster, Jindal will have no problem against her. In fact, it is possible that Blanco will not win her party's nomination. Either way, Republicans are likely to do quite well in 2007 and 2008 in Louisiana. Hopefully they can change the political tolerance of corruption there so that New Jersey can take their rightful place as "Most Corrupt State" which they have coveted for quite a while now.

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Posted at 7:26pm on Dec. 4, 2006 Texas CD 23: Democrat Candidate Stands Strong With Islamic Radicals

By TexasCD23

Due to the Texas redistricting case before the Supreme Court, there will be a special election on the 12th in TX-23.

This is pretty hard-hitting stuff. The run-off in Texas-23 is one of the last races in the country. The campaign of Republican Henry Bonilla put this out today:

Read on . . .

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Posted at 3:23pm on Nov. 28, 2006 And on this, Kos and I agree...

You Want Me To Do What?

By Clayton

Break out your pocketbooks, folks! The NRSC is in need!

When you're right, you're right (DailyKos). This is one helluva funny email:

From: "Senator Elizabeth Dole"
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006
Subject: Recovering from our Post-election debt

Help us Retire our Debt!

You have already done so much these past two years to help us protect our Republican Senate Majority - Thank you!

But right now, the NRSC is being buried under an avalanche of post-campaign debt... We need to address this problem at once in order to wipe-out our debt and make sure we have the funds to start 2007 with the maximum strength possible.

Please make an online donation right now to help the NRSC retire our 2006 campaign debt and set the stage for a GOP comeback over the next two years.

More of the bleg below the fold...

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Posted at 12:11pm on Nov. 28, 2006 We Hate Republicans, But We're Not Racist

By Erick

I am unconvinced by John Eaves' apologies over his radio ad. Eaves, who easily beat his Republican rival for the position of Chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlanta, GA, is backpeddling slightly from his racist attack ads that aired in the days before the general election.

On Monday, Eaves said he was sorry for the advertisement that has had Republican officials buzzing and threatening reprisals ever since.

"If people were offended by it, I apologize," Eaves said. "It wasn't race-baiting. It was sent to all Democratic households. The intent was not as it was taken."

Riiiigggggghhhhhhhtttttttt.

Just to quote from the ad, Atlanta Congressman John Lewis's voice says, "We face the most dangerous situation we ever have. If you thought fighting off dogs and water hoses in the sixties was bad, imagine if we sit idly by and let the right wing Republicans take control of the Fulton County Commission."

No, no race-baiting there. None at all. Apparently, tax cuts and ethics reforms (the Republican candidate's platform) at the Fulton County Commission are more threatening than dogs, water hoses, and police beatings of black citizens. Geez, what was I thinking.

And to think that the media has given more credence to Democrat charges that the Harold Ford, Jr. ad featuring the white lady asking Harold to call her was more racist than this.

Oh wait. I'm sorry. I forgot. The Ford ad was done by Republicans and this was done by Democrats. So no, this can't be racist. I'm sorry.

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Posted at 11:11am on Nov. 25, 2006 GOP Freshmen Elect Club for Growth Members as Leaders

By Adam C

According to Novak, the 13 house GOP freshman elected their 4 officers, 3 of whom are Club for Growth endorsed.

They included Bill Sali of Idaho as class president, Adrian Smith of Nebraska as Policy Committee representative and Doug Lamborn of Colorado as representative to the whip. The fourth officer is Kevin McCarthy of California as Steering Committee member.

They aren't GOP leadership today, but in a few years they may finally get around to pushing for the anti-pork, small goverment measures that the GOP has abandoned in recent years.