The National Republican Senatorial Committee Wants What?
Like Viking Spirit, I received the e-mail from Liddy Dole today asking for contributions to help the National Republican Senatorial Committee retire their debt (the balance of which I do not recall her specifying).
Unlike Viking Spirit, I muttered something unmentionable under my breath and deleted the e-mail. Viking Spirit did NOT do that, and I’m glad.
I can’t believe that the NRSC has the cajones to ask their supporters for more money, especially after their financal decisions cost the GOP a majority in the Senate. You’re probably asking yourself, how did the NRSC cost the GOP a majority? Well, it’s quite simple actually. They pumped almost a million dollars into Lincoln Chafee’s primary race against Steve Laffey in Rhode Island. Here are the exact numbers:
- Expenditures AGAINST Laffey: $653,871
- Party cooridnated expenditures for Chafee: $148,000
- Independent expenditures on behalf of Chafee: $29,356
- Contributions to Chafee-$22,557
- TOTAL: $853,784Why pump that much money into a primary, in a state where our prospects were bleak as-is, and for a candidate that rarely votes with the Republican Party?
We lost the Montana Senate race by 2,847 votes and lost the Virginia Senate race by 7,231 votes. If the NRSC would have put money into those races instead of wasting it in the Chafee v. Laffey primary, we would have swung at least one of those races into the Republican column, and we’d have a Republican majority in the Senate.
Technically, one switch would have led to a 50-50 tie, which the Vice President would break when tie votes actually occur in the Senate. But of course, Viking Spirit’s point stands. Even a few hundred thou in a state with the sparse population of Montana could easily have turned the tide. Virginia would have been more difficult to turn, but it was doable. And what about Missouri? Or well-timed hits on the Dems’ corrupt candidate in New Jersey?
Excuse me while I get ill. Help in reducing Ditzy Liddy Dole’s Deficit will have to come from someone other than me.
I’m not happy to see anyone suffer an email attack but at least I know I’m not alone. Yes, my reaction was similar to VS. Liddy, since I reside in NC I feel comfortable enough to call her this, has come to disappoint me on many fronts lately. To be sure she is a fine person. But this is about policy, not personality. She has made derogatory, and false, claims about the Fair-Tax, and did a woeful job leading the senate campaigns. On the local level, she has refused invitations to radio shows where she could engage her constituents. Not too bright considering some voters anger over “real” and some “perceived” arrogance on the part of the the GOP. She’s up in two years and she’s made it harder for the GOP to not only make some in-roads nationally but also to hold her very seat……..
Comment by Jeffrey S. Neher — November 29, 2006 @ 12:14 pm
I think she should step aside myself. IIRC, NC’s gov is pretty strong. Or am I wrong?
Comment by TBlumer — November 29, 2006 @ 2:19 pm