-By Warner Todd Huston
State lawmaker Raul Labrador beat party establishment pick Vaughn Ward to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Representative for Idaho’s 1st District this week. While Ward was supported by the national party, Labrador received the support of Idaho’s largest Tea Party Group, Tea Party Boise. The question that immediately comes to mind is just what effect did the Tea Party group’s support have on the race?
Labrador won in a 47.6 percent to 38.9 percent tally on Wednesday afternoon. Sadly it was again a low-turnout at the polls.
Late in the race Tea Party Boise endorsed Labrador as campaign troubles mounted for party pick Vaughn Ward. Labrador had trouble throughout raising money, but still won the primary. One wonders if the support of Tea Party Boise was enough to bridge the money gap for Labrador?
On March 15 I posted an interview I did with Glenn Reynolds in which he posited that with Tea Party groups behind any particular candidate, money is a bit less important. “In many ways,” Reynolds told me, “Tea Party activism is the substitute for cash that is to say you don’t have to pay people to go out and campaign yourself because Tea Party people will do it for free.”
We may be seeing this idea born out in Idaho. Despite his lack of campaign cash, with the support of the Idaho Tea Party folks Raul Labrador beat the party establishment.
In the Illinois 8th candidate Joe Walsh found a similar situation. He was not the party establishment pick and he had a perennial lack of campaign cash, but he also had the support of two local Tea Party groups. With their support Walsh beat the party established candidate despite his money woes.
We might be seeing the Tea Party effect in both Idaho’s 1st District and the Illinois 8th.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 200 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
Huston has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Huston’s work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Michael Savage. He has appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy show, dozens of local shows from coast to coast, and many blogtalk radio shows.
Mr. Huston has appeared on local TV news to discuss his writing, has been a guest of CNN’s blogger lunch, and has appeared on Breitbart TV’s B-Team show.
Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com and has a blog on the Tribune-Owned http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/ChicagoNow.com website. He is a well known writer on Illinois politics.
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The Tea Party had nothing to do with the win. In truth, Labrador should have taken 95% of the vote. Vaughn Ward shot himself in the foot every time he posted something. He plagiarized his speeches from East Coast candidates. The photo incident in full Marine dress did not bother me. It could be an honest mistake–although even I know the rules for the need for a disclaimer and so should he! It is a small incident and would not fool any thinking person into believing the Marines are supporting him.
That his wife works for Fannie Mae did not bother me much, it takes a 2 person income to afford many of the items we want and need. We have let the cost of living escalate faster than the wages. We all must work somewhere, but if she is as clever and capable as he would lead us to believe, she should seek other work to remove any doubt or suspicion.
What bothers me the most is that two brilliant adults, with political aspirations, could not year-after-year find the time to pay their property taxes in a timely fashion! They have to understand budgets and the need for the money to be “in the bank” so the government–or their household can function. If they cannot be fiscally responsible in their own lives what is his concern in the operation of the government? What else have they failed to do that most of the rest of us comply with?
It turns out there were more blunders, which only shows you the lack of respect for Labrador. His nickname while in the Idaho House seat has been “The immigrant lawyer”. He has, or had, a website selling $60 kits to immigrants/illegal’s to file papers for an early citizenship. He even told those that had already been selected for deportation how to drag it out longer and perhaps not be deported. It’s a certainty that if elected he will push for granting all illegal’s a pardon and immediate citizenship. He also missed many votes in his four years in the House.
I could not vote for Labrador and convinced others not to vote for him as well. The Tea Party was not noticed in my opinion.
-Jim