GOP Establishment Keeps Promise To Counter Tea Party With Surge In Primary Spending

[applegrove]

GOP Establishment Keeps Promise To Counter Tea Party With Surge In Primary Spending

by Paul Blumenthal at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/gop-establishment-spending_n_5552753.html

"SNIP.......................


WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party's internecine conflict has sparked a surge in independent spending in GOP congressional primaries as establishment elements defend incumbents against tea party-linked challengers.

Total spending by independent groups (excluding those known for supporting Democrats) in contested Republican congressional primaries soared to $46 million by the end of June, according to a review of Federal Election Commission records by The Huffington Post. That tops the $33 million spent in GOP congressional primaries during the full 2012 election calendar.

The spending surge came after the GOP establishment blamed the party's failure to capture control of the Senate on undisciplined tea party-backed candidates, who won primaries with the support of insurgent independent groups, then lost the general election to Democrats. Spending by corporate business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and wealthy establishment donors, is a reversal from recent elections that featured tea party groups as the largest source of independent spending in primaries.

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Scott Reed, the senior political strategist at the chamber, which did not respond to a request for comment, told Bloomberg in October, "The need is now more than ever to elect people who understand the free market and not silliness."


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[applegrove]

1. "The need is now more than ever to elect people who understand the free market and not silliness"

Sillyness? When your actions cause you damage it is silliness. But when your actions cause the middle class severe damage it is good policy? You are so out of touch. They get attacked and it is silliness.

[arcane1]

2. The people who truly "understand the free market" are we who want to regulate it.

Still, it's nice to see them fighting amongst themselves

[Xolodno]

3. Every dollar they spend fighting each other.....

...means one less dollar to fight in the election.

Ronold Reagan said not to speak ill of other Republicans. Then he paid lip service to the social conservatives and laid out establishment policies.....that was only going to work for so long. The GOP tapped the social conservatives after they got trounced in elections and gave them a "taste" of power, and assumed they would go back to their regularly scheduled programing. Only problem...they didn't.

Now they have to figure out how to divorce themselves from them. Problem is, once they do....they will be out of power for a few cycles....and no one wants to be the one to take the bullet. They are all hoping they can ride out "one more cycle" doing a crazy balancing act before the chickens come home to roost.