GOP leaders weigh drastic plan to save Alabama Senate seat

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

Republican leaders are exploring a dramatic remedy to salvage the Alabama Senate seat as fresh polling shows Roy Moore's prospects fading fast.

With less than four weeks until the special election and no sign that the party’s besieged nominee will exit the race, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his top advisers are discussing the legal feasibility of asking appointed Sen. Luther Strange to resign from his seat in order to trigger a new special election.

McConnell aides express caution, saying they're uncertain whether such a move, one of several options being discussed, is even possible. Yet the talks underscore the despair among top Republicans over relinquishing a seat in deep-red Alabama, further diminishing their slim Senate majority.

New GOP polling obtained by POLITICO suggests that Moore is cratering. A survey conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee after allegations emerged that Moore had engaged in sexual misconduct with teenagers showed him trailing Democratic candidate Doug Jones by 12 points. Other recent polling has the race closer.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/15/roy-moore-republicans-alabama-senate-244961

[Fullduplexxx]

1. Get ready for pull out all the stops hacking, cheating and upending precedent

[enough]

2. They can't seem to just let an election take its course. What is this idea that the

incumbent legislators are supposed to control what happens in an election?

[Bayard]

3. No, no, no

You don't get to change the rules, Mitchy, just because you're losing.

[Big Blue Marble]

6. Unfortunately, he seems to break the rules

whenever he is losing.

[better]

8. Actually, he does get to.

Certainly worked for considering a SCOTUS nominee.

[Dustlawyer]

16. Beat me to it! Turtlehead McConnell has set more under-handed precedents than

any Majority leader ever! There is no bar too low for this turtle to crawl under!

[wcmagumba]

4. Seems...not...legal...n/t

[msongs]

5. does alabama have integrity enough to punish any repub candidate after such a scam... nt

[SoCalMusicLover]

7. Why Not Just Phone The Russians?

They were helpful a year ago.

Don't be surprised if they do whatever they must to get him over the finish line.

[BootinUp]

9. Anything for power. Scum of the earth. Nt

[kysrsoze]

10. Wonder if Strange will send them all a big F.U. and refuse to resign

... if it comes to it. Seems like he owes the party nothing.

[Doitnow]

15. Unless they have something on him. Seems like in order to belong to the

Rethug gang, you have to have committed some kind of crime so that you can be blackmailed into doing whatever----. They're all so rotten. (Gang members stick together---until they don't)

[TomCADem]

11. Thought That Jeff Sessions Might Resign To Run As a Write-In...

...to allow Republicans to both save the seat while also giving Trump a greenlight to appoint a new AG who can then shut down the Russian investigation.

[EL34x4]

12. I don't believe this NRSC poll. I think Moore is going to win.

He's defiant and this is endearing him to Alabama conservatives who already hate Mitch McConnell and what they believe is a coordinated liberal media smear job on Moore.

[TomCADem]

13. Plus, Voting Has Already Begun. Moore Has a Lot of Votes Cast

The election has already begun with vote by mail ballots. Essentially, Alabama would have throw out the votes that have already been cast, and what is to prevent Roy Moore from simply running again?

[David__77]

14. I think if Moore stays in he has a great chance of winning.

I don’t see why he would quit. If he quits he appears to admit wrongdoing and is consigned to the garbage bin a coward to his supporters. If he stays in he can at least be a martyr- how grand.

[Madam45for2923]

17. McConnell&co. discussing asking Alabama Sen. Strange 2 resign & thus new special election

Link to tweet

[onenote]

18. even if the plan could be pulled off it won't work

First, it's hard to see how/why any vacancy created by Strange resigning would have to be filled by a different special election than the one currently scheduled. (If all of this was taking place in 2020, just before the regular election to fill that seat, I don't think the resignation of a Senator a month before that election would trigger an a separate special election. Second, there simply isn't time -- there'd have to be another primary and then another election and by then you'd be pushing up against the 2018 elections -- who would the governor appoint to fill Strange's seat for the next year?

And it wouldn't work anyway. Moore would file to run in the primary and he might win unless the republican party barred him from running. Which would piss off Moore and his supporters so much that Moore might very well launch a third party candidacy that at very least would ensure that the Republican candidate loses (the winner would either be the Democrat or, less likely, Moore).

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. If this works, there are some stocks I bought where I'd like to have a "do-over."

Nortel, Washington Mutual, JDS Uniphase....

Why should I suffer for my bad decisions?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. And then the governor can appoint Moore to the open seat and get rid of all this election nonsense.

[CrispyQ]

21. I hate McConnell most of all.

Even more than the Con. If they take the Con down & leave McConnell, we'll be back here again.